The U.S. Defense Department’s interest in small satellites has given rise to efforts to develop platforms and components with standard interfaces that would allow planners to mix and match hardware to perform a variety of missions at an economical cost.
In one such effort, the Pentagon expects to award a contract in late 2005 to develop the Standard Interface Vehicle, a common satellite platform that could host a variety of payloads.
The money saved with the Standard Interface Vehicle could help fly more experimental payloads that languish on the ground for lack of launch funds, according to a June 13 Defense Department document listing objectives for the Space Test Program.
The Space Test Program finds rides to space for military experiments that have been ranked in priority by a Defense Department-wide group called the Space Experiments Review Board. The program finds rides at no charge to the experimenter for ranked projects. It also finds space for unranked payloads, whose sponsors must pay launch costs.
The Standard Interface Vehicle should be compatible with a variety of rockets, according to the document, which was posted on a Pentagon Web site. Among these rockets are Boeing’s Delta 4 and Lockheed Martin’s Atlas 5, which were developed under the U.S. Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program and which launch the majority of U.S. military payloads. Therefore, the platform must be compatible with the EELV Secondary Payload Adapter, a ring-shaped device that enables both vehicles to accommodate multiple secondary payloads, the document said.
The Space Test Program hopes to launch the first Standard Interface Vehicle in late 2008, according to Air Force Lt. Col. Dan Griffith, acting director of the Space Test Program.
Pentagon leaders are growing more interested in small satellites, not just for experiments but also to support military operations. One set of Pentagon programs, generally referred to under the heading of “responsive space,” aims to develop a new breed of satellites and rockets that can be launched on short notice to meet military contingencies as they arise.
Spacecraft Platforms
The Standard Interface Vehicle is by no means the only effort of its type. The Pentagon’s Office of Force Transformation in Arlington, Va., is developing a common spacecraft platform that could debut later this decade as part of its TacSat program, which aims to develop small satellites that can be tasked and controlled by forces in the field. The proposed mission, dubbed TacSat-3, would fly an experimental hyperspectral imaging payload, according to Pentagon officials.
Meanwhile, the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., are leading an industry and academic consortium developing a more advanced version of the platform intended for use on TacSat-3.
Pat Patterson, manager of the Technology Development branch at the Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, said the adoption of standard interfaces for small satellite hardware could lead to capabilities that cannot even be imagined today.
Patterson drew an analogy with the personal computer industry, where the use of common ports for Internet connections and accessories enables easy integration of systems. This has led to the development of new devices such as flash memory cards that can be carried on a keychain and plugged into most computers, he said.
Another advantage of standardized satellite platforms is that they would be less costly than custom-built hardware because they could be produced in relatively large quantities, Patterson said.
Despite these advantages, not everyone is sold on standardization, and industry has made few strides in that direction, said Patterson, who is chairman of the 19th Annual American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics/Utah State University Conference on Small Satellites in Logan Aug. 8-11.
One of the downsides of standardization is that it can require compromises in capability, said Quinn Young, a senior mechanical engineer at the Space Dynamics Laboratory. Standardization also can drive up the weight of a satellite because the platform is designed to accommodate a large number of applications, he said.
The potential market for satellite platforms, components and instruments with standard interfaces is not clear at this point, Young said. While the Pentagon has several standardization initiatives under way, neither the military nor NASA is buying small satellites in large quantities, he said.
source: http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1034602&C=airwar 27aug2005
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