Session
Technical Session I: Hardware In Space
Abstract
The Technology for Autonomous Operational Survivability / Space Test Experiments Platform (TAOS/STEP) satellite was launched on a Taurus booster from Vandenberg Air Force Base into a nearly circular, 105 degree inclined orbit on March 13, 1994. The purpose of this satellite is twofold: 1) to test a new concept in multiple procurements of fast-track modular satellites and 2) to test a suite of Air Force Phillips Laboratory payloads in space. The TAOS payloads include the Microcosm Autonomous Navigation System (MANS), two Barnes Engineering Dual Cone Scanners, two Honeywell Generic VHSIC Spaceborne Computers, a Rockwell Global Positioning System receiver, a MIL-STD 1553B data bus, two laser sensors and a radar sensor. The payload experimentation period is about one and a half years and has been largely successful in spite of the failure of the STEP satelite's Inertial Measurement Unit, and, on the TAOS payload, one of the Generic VHSIC Spaceborne Computers, and the RF segment of the GPS receiver.
The TAOS/STEP Satellite
The Technology for Autonomous Operational Survivability / Space Test Experiments Platform (TAOS/STEP) satellite was launched on a Taurus booster from Vandenberg Air Force Base into a nearly circular, 105 degree inclined orbit on March 13, 1994. The purpose of this satellite is twofold: 1) to test a new concept in multiple procurements of fast-track modular satellites and 2) to test a suite of Air Force Phillips Laboratory payloads in space. The TAOS payloads include the Microcosm Autonomous Navigation System (MANS), two Barnes Engineering Dual Cone Scanners, two Honeywell Generic VHSIC Spaceborne Computers, a Rockwell Global Positioning System receiver, a MIL-STD 1553B data bus, two laser sensors and a radar sensor. The payload experimentation period is about one and a half years and has been largely successful in spite of the failure of the STEP satelite's Inertial Measurement Unit, and, on the TAOS payload, one of the Generic VHSIC Spaceborne Computers, and the RF segment of the GPS receiver.
