A CARGO ACCOMMODATION PROBLEM FOR A SPACE VEHICLE: THE CAST PROJECT

The Automated Transfer Vehicle is the European transportation system supporting the International Space Station. A detailed analytical cargo accommodation for each single cargo has to be performed in order to meet the Cargo Manifest plan provided by NASA. Accommodation rules, geometrical and functional conditions have to be considered, in addition to the static and dynamic balancing constraints, deriving from the attitude control requirements. The objective of the analysis is to satisfy the Station Cargo Manifest, in compliance with the given accommodation rules and constraints. The problem is very challenging and looking into an efficient solution, by means of a manual approach alone, would represent an impractical job even for an experienced designer. For this purpose, the European Space Agency has funded CAST (Cargo Analytical Accommodation Support Tool) a project dedicated to the development of a software tool in support to the Automated Transfer Vehicle cargo analytical accommodation.