Lightweight On-Orbit Gimbal Systems

The Hardric Laboratories' program team for the development of Advanced, Lightweight On-Orbit Gimbal Structures (ALOGS), including of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) and Brush Wellman, understands that the pointing / line of sight accuracy that a space sensor system can achieve and the repeatability of that performance over time is greatly dependent on the structural and thermal characteristics the gimbal's main support structures. In parallel, future Air Force and MDA Systems must be developed and produced at must lower cost and with much shorter development and production cycle times than has currently been demonstrated to be considered "affordable". With this insight and experience, the ALOGS team has conceived of and is proposing a 2-phase technology development program to produce and empirical verify that a Welded "AlBe" manufacturing process ("AlBeWeld") can meet all of the requirements of future Air Force and MDA Space Gimbal Systems at a dramatically lower cost and a significantly shorter fabrication leadtime. This proposed development effort is timed to prove this new "AlBeWeld" manufacturing technology by the STSS Block 10-12 Technology Freeze Date in 2007 so that the planned system development can take full advantage of the improved producibility that this technology offers. The need for this program is driven by the Air Force and MDA's plan to develop and deploy an operational constellation of low altitude surveillance satellites (Space Tracking & Surveillance System or STSS) whose primary mission will be the detection and accurate tracking of missile-launched warheads and their handover to ballistic missile interceptors. Figure 1.1-1 illustrates how this constellation of satellites and its EO / IR sensor payloads will perform this critical mission of global missile detection, tracking, and handover. The successful performance of this system / mission is the key that will allow MDA's initial missile defense system to extend it's midcourse interceptors over the horizon to successfully intercept threatening intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM's) far from US shores.