WASHINGTON — A prototype radar surveillance antenna tops the Pentagon’s latest annual space experiments priority list, with demonstrations of materials for a re-entry vehicle and a satellite-based laser threat detection system ranking second and third, respectively.
In all, 41 proposals made the 2003 Space Experiments Review Board (SERB) list, which was finalized in November. The experiments are proposed by organizations throughout the U.S. Department of Defense, and those that make the list are given consideration for assignment to space missions in the coming years.
Richard McKinney, deputy director for space acquisition in the office of the U.S. Air Force undersecretary, and the SERB chairman, said almost all U.S. military satellites include technology that went through the panel’s approval process. Roughly 25 percent of the experiments that make the list ultimately find rides to space, either as stand-alone satellites or payloads hosted on other platforms, he said.
Getting approved experiments into space is the charter of the Defense Department’s Space Test Program, which is based at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. Among the launch options at the program’s disposal are small rockets such as the Air Force’s Minotaur vehicle, NASA’s space shuttle and various secondary payload opportunities.
Air Force Col. Richard White, director of the Space Test Program, said he has a budget of $39 million in 2004. He said, however, that it is too early to guess when any of the recently approved experiments might actually be launched.
The Integrated Space Based Radar Antenna Technology experiment, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, took the honors as this year’s top-ranked concept on the SERB list. The experiment will demonstrate the feasibility of using inflatable materials for large but lightweight radar antennas, White said.
The experiment is closely tied to the Air Force’s Space Based Radar program, which is designed to field a constellation of satellites able to track moving ground targets across the globe 24 hours a day and under all weather conditions. As currently envisioned, the Space Based Radar would consist of nine satellites in low Earth orbit.
Pentagon officials ultimately would like to move the system to a medium-altitude Earth orbit, where fewer satellites could provide better coverage, but with today’s technology that would require an antenna measuring some 100 meters long — too big to be launched on existing rockets. The Integrated Space Based Radar Antenna Technology experiment would demonstrate a possible solution that makes use of inflatable materials.
Second on the SERB list is the Re-Entry Structures Experiment, which is intended to examine lightweight materials that can withstand the rigors of atmospheric re-entry, White said. The demonstration features a prototype nose cone that could help pave the way for future re-entry vehicles that could glide through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds to strike distant targets on short notice.
No. 3 on the list is the Laser Threat Warning and Attack Reporting System, which is designed to detect and provide notification of laser attacks against U.S. satellites, White said.
During the demonstration, various low-power lasers on the ground would be fired at an experimental sensor in orbit, White said. The test will help the Air Force develop sensors that can recognize laser energy, he said.
A related experiment, which ranked 10th on the list, is the Compact Environmental Anomaly Sensor, which is designed to detect and identify potentially disruptive radiation events in space such as solar flares, White said. Similar experiments have been flown several times before to examine radiation environments in different orbits, and the latest demonstration will fly in an elliptical orbit, he said.
Also high on the SERB list is a pair of U.S. Navy-sponsored experiments that could help improve the service’s ability to navigate the oceans, White said. The Coastal Ocean Imaging Spectrometer, ranked No. 5, is a hyperspectral camera designed to find sandbars that could pose a hazard during close-to-shore operations such as amphibious landings, he said. The Ocean Surface Topography Mission, ranked third, would use a radar sensor to map wave heights, helping Navy navigators plot the most efficient courses for ships, he said.
The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency also has an experiment in the SERB’s top 10. The Calibrated Orbiting Objects Program-Microsatellite Target System will place two small objects in orbit, one simulating a missile warhead and one simulating a decoy, White said. The objects will be tracked by ground-based radars in an effort to refine their ability to discriminate between missile warheads and decoys in space, he said.
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