credit: NASA / caption: ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle Jules Verne departs International Space Station
The European Space Agency’s final two expendable Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV) that will resupply the International Space Station in 2013 and 2014 could communicate with mission control using ESA’s proposed European data relay satellite system (EDRSS), a constellation of up to three geostationary satellites launched from 2012, if its agreed to at the agency’s member states’ ministerial meeting, being held from 25-26 November in the Netherlands
The ESA video (watch it in the extended portion of this blog post) doesn’t mention this but the EDRSS could be used for ATV operations and act as a dual-use capablity for European defence forces. If approved this November it could also be designed to work with the joint ESA, European Union Kopernikus, global monitoring for the environment and security programme
The full ESA news report about EDRSS will be broadcast this Friday 7 November. For those of you with your own satellite dishes and fancy digital boxes
Reception Parameters for 4.8 degrees East Satellite Sirius 4 Transponder B28 Centre Frequency 12245.340 MHz Polarisation Offset 0 degrees Polarisation State Vertical FEC Rate 3/4*188/204 Symbolrate 27.5 Megasymbols/s
