INTERVIEW
Sergio Mannu from Thales Alenia Space S.p.A.
“Thales Alenia uses EcosimPro since 1992”
"Thales Alenia a major electronic systems company acting in areas such as defence, aerospace, airlines security and safety, information technology, and transportation uses EcosimPro since 1992". Thales Alenia Space provides satellite solutions for all types of Science missions, such as Astronomy (space-based observatories in a wide range of spectral bands), Interplanetary missions to other worlds including landing probes, etc.
EcosimPro (E.): Why did Thales Alenia Space choose EcosimPro for this project?
Sergio Mannu (S.M.): EcosimPro was chosen as it was the only tool able to simulate complex phenomena like the discharge to space of humid gases (Node 3 of International Space Station) and the flow of real gases discharged to cabin (Water and Gas Delivery System of ATV).
E.: Had Thales Alenia Space a previous reference about this tool? How did Thales Alenia Space know about it? What do you think about EcosimPro after nine years of using? Is it easy to learn and use? Which are the main characteristics of the tool?
S.M.: EcosimPro was known by Thales Alenia Space already from 1992, when an evaluation copy was available for few months. Its applications were limited only to air loops, but they did not have a further development due to the complex syntax and to the strong numerical problems of the tool, not mature enough at that time.
It is only from 2000 onwards that my Company, with the appearance of EcosimPro 3.0 and of its graphical interface Smartsketch, revealed interested to extend EcosimPro applications to problems of new kind, never analyzed so far like the discharge to space of humid gases. The idea came after a work-shop held in ESTEC in 1999, in which the new EcosimPro 3.0 was officially presented. I was sent to ESTEC in January 2000 to attend an EcosimPro course held by Mr. Ramon Perez Vara and Mr. Pedro Cobas Herrero and I immediately felt it was the tool we were looking for. Alter nine years of use I can say that EcosimPro is relatively easy to use in its graphic
ambient, not the same with the traditional approach of programming type.
It is important to underline that, even if with a graphic approach, the user must develop a certain numerical feeling to start the simulation in the most realistic way. In case the first attempt data are not close to the real solution, the code could meet severe numerical problems (e.g. stability, convergence etc.).
The last EcosimPro releases seem anyway to have overcome the obstacle, what allows defining it as a robust and reliable code.
E.: How is the relationship with the Spanish team of EcosimPro?
S.M.: The relationship with the Spanish team of EcosimPro can be defined
excellent. In particular, I’ve found in Mr. Ramón Pérez Vara not only an excellent technician, but also a dear friend and a great teacher able to help
me solve, with rare competence and patience, all the problems in the use of EcosimPro, especially in the first times of its applications.
E.: In reference to your project, what do you mean about “Water and Gas Delivery System of ATV”? Can you give us more details about the Italian manned module?
S.M.: The Water and Gas Delivery System (W&GDS) is a function of the Automated Transportation Vehicle, one of the Italian pressurized modules of the International Space Station (Russian segment). W&GDS provides to deliver water and breathable gases to the Station. EcosimPro was used to simulate the process of discharge to ATV Cabin of real gases (oxygen/nitrogen) by which a synthetic air is created. The gases are called “real” as stored in high pressure tanks, from which they flow at a constant mass flow rate thanks to the action of a dedicated regulator. The simulation of such a kind of discharge is very complex (in mathematics we would say “with a high non-linearity index”), but EcosimPro revealed again the winning tool, especially after the correlation of its results with the test data.
For what concerns the other Italian manned Modules, I took part to the projects of the Mini Pressurized Logistic Module (MPLM) and to the interchange modules called Nodes 2 and Node 3. Nodes 2 and 3 are permanently attached to International Space Station, while MPLM is docked to ISS only for short periods, for logistics tasks (e.g. transportation of foods, liquids, medicines etc.). I was also involved in Columbus program, a permanent module of ISS on which several experimental racks and devices are installed.
E.: Is Thales Alenia Space using EcosimPro in others space project? Is the company thinking about this tool for another uses in the future?
S.M.: Thales Alenia Space is now using EcosimPro for propulsion problems, for which a new license was bought by our Department of Aero-thermo-dynamics and Propulsion. All the developed knowhow on EcosimPro applications for gases discharge is naturally a patrimony of the Company and it is not so rare to reapplicate it in case old problems had a change in their hypotheses, what happened for instance in this last month of February 2009.
