Goal Is To Shorten Response Time To Mission Requirements
Think of it as being something like a spacecraft USB port.
Northrop Grumman Corporation will help the Air Force Research
Laboratory (AFRL) design a spacecraft "bus" with plug-and-play
capability to reduce cost and schedule in developing future space
systems.
Northrop Grumman has been awarded an initial $500,000 task order
for a six-month study under the AFRL's Plug-and-Play Spacecraft
Technologies program. The company will deliver the study to the
AFRL's Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
The task order was awarded under an indefinite delivery/indefinite
quantity (ID/IQ) contract with a ceiling of $200 million.
The spacecraft "bus" is the infrastructure that serves as the
platform for carrying the payload and other mission-oriented
equipment. Payload components could be changed in and out without a
major spacecraft redesign.
"Plug-and-play capability could change the way spacecraft are
built by shortening industry's response time to customers' mission
requirements," said Steve Hixson, vice president of Advanced
Concepts-Space and Directed Energy Systems for Northrop Grumman
Aerospace Systems. "It will provide a standard interface for
different payload components, much like a laptop computer that
immediately recognizes new hardware when it's plugged in."
Northrop Grumman recently demonstrated its rapid response
capability, with NASA's Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing
Satellite (LCROSS). Northrop Grumman delivered the spacecraft for
launch in just 27 months using standardized structural elements;
commercial-off-the-shelf hardware, sensors and components;
flight-proven payload instruments and sophisticated risk
management. In October, LCROSS successfully impacted the moon in
support of NASA's search for evidence of water ice that could serve
as a resource for future lunar outposts.
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