Next March, an Ariane5 is going to launch the first ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) named “Jules Verne” in direction to ISS (International Space Station). ATV’s weight is 20.7 tons to the takeoff and it gives a payload up to 9.0 t (four times the one of a Progress). ATV is the biggest European satellite ever. It measures 10.3 ms of length, 4.5 ms of diameter and more than 22 ms of spread with the his unfolded solar panels.Avionics and the most complex onboard software ever realized in Europe:EADS Astrium is the prime contractor of ATV and is the responsible for the system integration and the avionics and software commissioning, simulation and tests.GTD has made, on behalf of Astrium, great part of the software of the ATV, including the sequences more critics for the "RENDEZ VOUS" and the "DOCKING" operations.ATV has five redundant computers including three main ones for the control of mission and two only reserved for the security aspects. The ATV’s onboard software is the most complex ever done is European Space history, and it is ten times bigger than the one of Ariane-5 in terms of memory size. More than a hundred engineers have developed and test this software.The avionics is made of more than 50 equipments that weigh more than 400 kg plus other 400 kg of batteries and 200 kg of wiring (there are 18,000 points of connection). EADS Astrium provides the gyroscopic, accelerometers and power units, as well as the box of acquisition and telemetry, module TM/TC and the sun tracker.The docking of ATV with ISS is entirely automatic and can be only be done in the back part of the Russian segment (Zvezda module).
