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Aviation History
1997
1997 - 0081.PDF
SPACEFLIGHT Rising star Spectrum Astro's contract to build the Deep Space 1 has raised the company's profile. TIM FURNISS/LONDON DESPITE ANNUAL SALES of around $20 million and a rating as one of the fastest-growing space companies in the USA, Spectrum Astro's success had gone relatively unnoticed until NASA awarded it the contract to develop the first craft in the space agency's New Millennium programme. Spectrum Astro, of Gilbert, Arizona, is build ing the Deep Space 1, to be launched by a Delta Med-Lite booster in 1998 to fly by the asteroid McAuliffe on 26 January, 1999, and the comet West-Kohoutek-Ikemura on 1 June, 2000. The 350kg Deep Space 1 will support NASAs objective to advance new technologies rapidly for interplanetary, Earth-observation and other spacecraft, with an emphasis on lower-cost, higher reliability, smaller, more effi cient spacecraft. The company was founded in 1988 and immediately "...attacked long-standing cost, technical and cultural barriers that have plagued high performance space systems", it says. To date, it has won more than 50 space research- •tt'WH'iHHtiHil SPECTRUM ASTRO is building three MightySat Phase 2 small satellites for the US Air Force Phillips Laboratory, which is managing its own version of NASA's New Millennium project. The work resumed in March 1996 after a suspension following the withdrawal of a bid protest by CTA Space Systems. The MightySat programme will provide frequent, low-cost access to space for the demonstration of emerging technologies developed by Phillips. The craft are designed as flying laboratory benches, enabling technologies to b e taken from development to operation. The Spectrum Astro contract is worth S23.5 million through to 2005, if three additional optional satellites are also built. and-development and manufac turing contracts and has laun ched several satellites in the low- cost$10-35 million price range, including Miniature Sensor Tech nology Integration (MSTI) satellites for the US Air Force and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. The majority of the company's rev enue comes from Department of Defense contracts, and 50% of the business is in subsystems. Other work includes the electrical-power subsystems, command and data-handling avionics for NAS As Mars Global Surveyor, launched in Novem ber, and the 1988 Mars Surveyor orbiter and lander spacecraft. Similar systems are being provided for the NASA Discoveiy pro gramme's Lunar Prospector. Spectrum Astro has also provided an ion- thruster system for thejapanese NStar commu nications satellites. The company's goal is to gain more civilian work, particularly in remote- sensing and communications satellites, offering a full space service from design to launch. To accomplish this, Spectrum Astro has introduced the SA2, SA3 and SA1000 satellite buses for cus tomers looking for low-Earth to geostationary orbit spacecraft. NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California awarded an initial $1.1 million con tract to Spectrum Astro in October 1995 to design the Deep Space 1, and the full construc- The MightySats will carry two types of payloads — experimental bus components and stand-alone experiments. The first of the science experiments will include a new type ofhyperspectral imager and a low-cost ultra-violet Sun-irradiance meter. The MightySat work is a logical exten sion to Spectrum Astro's role in the MSTI programme, which gave birth to the New Millennium concept. The goal of the MSTI programme is to demonstrate and test miniature-sensor technologies for missile detection, using small low-Earth- orbiting satellites, with the secondary objective at gathering background data on the the Earth's atmosphere. The "faster, better, cheaper" approach Spectrum Astro's Deep Space 1 is to be launched in 1998 tion contract is expected to follow that deal. JPL chief mission engineer Marc Rayman says that the Deep Space 1 has a "...payload suite of 13 advanced technologies, all of which offer important benefits to future space science missions". These include a miniaturised cam era and spectrometer, which will image the asteroid and comet in ultra-violet, infra-red and visible wavelengths; a xenon ion thruster; com posite lightweight high-gain antenna; and full onboard autonomy. To support the Deep Space 1 programme and with an eye to future contracts for the already- planned Deep Space 2, 3 and 4 craft, Spectrum opened the New Millennium Center in May 1996. This will also support the firm's work on all small satellite contracts. J was developed by Spectrum Astro, Phillips and JPL, which implemented the MSTI satellite design by adapting the results of Spectrum Astro's Advanced Satellite Subsystem Technology Demonstration design for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. A key to the firm's success has been that spacecraft are of standard design so that any component can be removed and replaced easily and quickly. The MSTI 1 was launched in 1992 and its major payload was a sensor which returned 100,000 mid-wave infra-red images, one of which revealed a rocket motor being ground-tested. The 225kg MSTI 3 was launched in May 1996, equipped with an improved imaging system. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 8 - 14 January 1997
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