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European Space Agency

Press Release

Filling up for the long journey

26 May 2003
 
Mars Express diary 10

Propellant loading is one of the most challenging and risky actions
of the launch preparation. In the final phase of the preparation, the
team has to work in perfect coordination to achieve this, as Ared
Schnorhk, Principal Mechanical and Propulsion Engineer for Mars
Express, explains. 
 
Just as motor vehicles need fuelling before long journeys, so
spacecraft require full tanks before they set off to visit other
worlds. To get into orbit around Mars and to perform its daily
operations around the planet, Mars Express has one main rocket engine
and a set of eight small control thrusters. These engines need to be
fed with 'propellants', which in this case are two highly toxic
chemical liquids that react together when mixed.

Mars Express has two propellant tanks, one for each liquid, which
have to be filled just before launch. In order to perform these
dangerous operations, a lot of accurate preparation is needed from
every participant and perfect coordination is needed with the
facility operators.

For the loading operations, a specific facility is used: the
Hazardous Processing Facility. During the loading itself,
contamination levels are constantly monitored, with firemen and
medical support ready nearby. Access is restricted to the essential
personnel only. All precautions are taken to prevent injury to people
or any con-tamination of the environment.

During a training session, our Launch Campaign Manager Michael
Witting got the opportunity to experience what it is like being a
fuelling operator. For this job, he has to wear a special
environmentally sealed 'SCAPE' suit. SCAPE stands for Self-Contained
Apparatus Protective Ensemble and is a bit like a space suit, but
used for hazardous operations during ground processing. Even though
you are never more than a few steps away from a 'SCAPE colleague',
you quickly feel lonely and very dependent on the air supply, the
communication system and the integrity or 'airtightness' of the suit.

For Mars Express, we first loaded the 297 kilogrammes of oxidizer and
two days later we loaded 178 kilogrammes of fuel . As hoped,
everything went fine. During one of the last SCAPE activities, the
communication system of one SCAPE operator failed. However, this was
solved quickly. His colleague instructed him with sign language to
sit down and wait until all the dangerous operations were completed.

Once the facility was cleared of all hazardous vapour, the Mars
Express spacecraft was transferred to the Upper Composite Integration
Facility for stacking onto its adapter and then onto the Soyuz-Fregat
upper-stage rocket. The success of this fuelling operation brings to
an end a hectic and critical part of the launch campaign. It was the
last major activity on the spacecraft, and the most dangerous, so now
we are now looking forward to launch.

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