STANDARD GAS SATELLITE (SGS)

DEFENSE SYSTEMS, INC. (DSI) HAS PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN PIONEERING THE USE OF THE GET AWAY SPECIAL TO LAUNCHLOW COST FREE FLYERS WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GLOBAL LOW ORBITING MESSAGE RELAY (GLOMR) SATELLITE LAUNCHED IN OCTOBER 1985. TO EXPAND THE USE OF LOW COST ACCESS TO SPACE FOR A VARIETY OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS, THERE IS NOW A NEED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A LOW COST BUS THAT CAN PROVIDE WEIGHT, VOLUME, ELECTRIC POWER, OPTIONAL STABILIZATION AND EXTENDED LIFE (THROUGH A PROPULSION SYSTEM TO RAISE ORBIT ALTITUDE) TO SCIENTIFIC PAYLOADS. DSI HAS DEVELOPED THE CONCEPT AND MUCH OF THE HARDWARE FOR A MODULAR LINE OF SUCH BUSES, BASED ON FLIGHT PROVEN COMPONENTS THAT CAN PROVIDE MORE THAN 50 LBS. PAYLOAD IN A STANDARD GAS CANISTER OR ELV, PROVIDE TELEMETRY AND COMMAND LINKS, 10 MEGABITS OF ON-BOARD MEMORY, SCHEDULABLE EXPERIMENT AND HOUSEKEEPING FUNCTIONS AND A PORTABLE GROUND STATION THAT CAN OPERATE ALL FUNCTIONS OF THE SATELLITE, AND IS BASED ON AN IBM PCXT. THE OPTIONAL PROPULSION SYSTEM IS A SEPARATE, DETACHABLE MODULE THAT MAY BE DISCARDED WHEN IN ORBIT TO REDUCE DRAG. THE BUS IS THEN GRAVITY GRADIENT STABILIZED. THE MODULAR BUS CAN BE ADAPTED TO BOTH THE STANDARD AND TO THE EXTENDED GAS CANISTERS. IN PHASE I, DSI WILL COMPLETE THE SYSTEM DESIGN AND WILL BUILD THE SPACECRAFT BUS. IN PHASE II, WE WILL COMPLETE THE PROPULSION SYSTEM AND BEGIN QUALIFICATION OF THE ENTIRE SYSTEM.