Space Transportation: an ATV perspective

The Erasmus Centre of the ESA Directorate of Human Spaceflight, who produced this DVD, picked one of ESA's latest success stories – the mission of Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) that was docked to the International Space Station (ISS) for 6 months - to highlight the complex physical laws behind handy space applications and driving current and future human exploration undertakings.

Ronald Top flies the viewers of this 32 minute video over the hurdles of Orbital Mechanics, Propulsion and Satellite Navigation.

His fresh and unpretentious approach are the main assets this DVD uses to gain the attention of students all over Europe to space topics relevant to their curriculum. ATV is an ESA/HSF success story used as the "case study" for most of the Physics laws presented. Launch pads in French Guyana, Jules Verne`s house, a clock museum, ESTEC, the Bremen Drop Tower are some of the milestones in this journey through history and physics used to illustrate the basic principles of space travel.

Teachers can order a copy of this DVD free of charge at the following internet address: www.esa.int/spaceflight/education

The DVD contains a booklet with 17 questions that are directly drawn from scenes presented in the video. The Erasmus Centre presents here a pre-release in low resolution. The final DVD, in standard SD, 16:9 format, in English with subtitles in 11 European languages, is due for release mid November 2008. The film was shot in HDV.