Jules Verne to the jungle? Wait a minute, I remember something about the centre of the Earth and twenty thousands leagues under the sea, but the jungle? I must have missed that novel...

Actually the Jules Verne we are talking about is not the French pioneer of science fiction. Jules Verne is the name given to the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), a brand new unmanned spacecraft built by the European Space Agency. You can see a picture below (photo ESA - D. Ducros). The jungle is that of French Guiana, where the Kourou spaceport is located, and where the Jules Verne ATV arrived from Europe at the end of July.

The Jules Verne ATV

The ATV, whose first launch is due early next year, will bring supplies such as food, air, fuel and much needed films on DVD to the crew of the International Space Station (ISS). After reaching a 300-km orbit thanks to an Ariane 5 rocket, it will manoeuvre automatically to get close and dock to the ISS. The astronauts on board the station will then get inside the ATV and unload all the precious merchandise made on Earth. The emptied module will then be used as the most hi-tech rubbish bin ever. Meanwhile, its thrusters will fire from time to time to increase the station's altitude, since its orbit gradually degrades due to the residual drag of the atmosphere.

Once filled to the brim, about six months after its arrival, the ATV will detach from the station and plunge into the atmosphere to burn and self-destruct above the Pacific Ocean.

It might not seem the most honourable end to a space mission, but you must admit that turning a pile of rubbish into a shooting star is definitely the most spectacular example of recycling ever attempted.

After Jules Verne has burnt into the atmosphere a new ATV will be built and sent to the Space Station, and then another one, and so on. ESA had considered other options allowing the spacecraft, or some part of it, to return safely to Earth, but it eventually dropped all these alternatives. Believe it or not, it is easier and cheaper to rebuild the spacecraft anew each time than to find a way to reuse the same one over and over again. The era of space vessels landing and taking off again the same day like planes is not yet upon us.

As if disposable spacecraft weren't wasteful enough, what is the point of launching them from French Guiana? Why shipping four hundred tonnes of space technology across the Atlantic? Couldn't ESA launch the thing from somewhere in Europe? Or is it some kind of absurd compromise like the travelling circus of MEPs between Brussels and Strasbourg?

Actually there are at least two very good reasons to build a spaceport in French Guiana (that's two more than for having a duplicate seat for the European Parliament). But to find out you'll have to wait for the next post.