MicroSat Systems Surpasses Expectations for Air Force TechSat 21 Program.Business Editors/High-Tech WritersDENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 29, 2003 MicroSat Systems Inc. (MSI MSI: see integrated circuit. (1) (MicroSoft Installer) See Windows Installer. (2) (Medium Scale Integration) Between 100 and 3,000 transistors on a chip. See SSI, LSI, VLSI and ULSI. ) recently completed rigorous structural and dynamics testing of the TechSat 21 satellite bus, setting a new industry standard for rapid development, test and integration. "Building high-performance small spacecraft quicker and for less money does not have to come at the expense of quality," said John Roth John Roth, is the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nortel. He was born in Alberta, Canada, in 1942. He was named Northern Telecom Limited's CEO in 1995 and was elected to the board of directors in 1996. , president, MicroSat Systems. These tests confirm the company's ability to accurately predict the response of the spacecraft structure-to-launch environments using streamlined engineering processes. "We can trace every step, validate every test and document every requirement efficiently and completely. As we move forward with the processing of satellites we will be able to incorporate today's testing into an efficient and rapid design-to-flight service for our customers," Roth added. Dynamics testing of the TechSat 21 structural engineering development unit (EDU) progressed through successful testing of both the X and Y axes through the severe launch vehicle environments of random vibration In mechanical engineering, random vibration is motion which is non-deterministic, meaning that future behavior cannot be precisely predicted. The randomness is a characteristic of the excitation or input, not the mode shapes or natural frequencies. , sine vibration, and sine burst testing. TechSat 21 has been designed for the challenging Delta IV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program was a United States government, primarily a Department of Defense–sponsored effort to develop at least one family of space launch vehicles, that would meet the long term needs of the military and fulfill commercial (EELV EELV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle EELV End-Expiratory Lung Volume EELV Extended Expendable Launch Vehicle ) secondary payload adapter (ESPA ESPA Elementary School Proficiency Assessment ESPA European Sport Pilot Association ESPA Empire State Pride Agenda (NY lesbian and gay political organization) ESPA Easter Seals Project Action ESPA Empire State Petroleum Association ) launch environment. MSI engineers and technicians are in the process of rotating the EDU to orient the Z axis into alignment on the shaker machine for the next round of testing at Kirtland Air Force Base Kirtland Air Force Base is located in the southeast quadrant of Albuquerque, New Mexico, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base is the third largest installation in Air Force Materiel Command, covering 51,558 acres (209 km²) and employing over 23,000 people, , Albuquerque, NM. After Z axis testing engineers will reconfigure the EDU payload mass simulator to represent the TechSat 21 radar payload and repeat the testing. MSI also successfully completed interface verification testing of the attitude control system's torque rods, demonstrating the company's ability to complete multiple unplanned scenarios, gather data that was not pre-planned and trouble shoot minor problems in real time. MicroSat Systems offers rapid response to unique customer requirements by providing short development cycle times at low cost. MicroSat Systems is a small Colorado-based company that designs, develops, integrates, tests and operates high-performance satellites and spacecraft subsystems, including lightweight thin film solar arrays and multi-functional composite structures. |
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