...the who's who,
and the what's what 
of the space industry

Displaying items by tag: payload

Sunday, 11 November 2012 11:05

Ecliptic Enterprises

Ecliptic Enterprises is an American company that creates on-board imaging systems for use with rockets, spacecraft, and other remote platforms. It is based in Pasadena, Calif., USA.

Ecliptic Enterprises also provides cost-effective space-access solutions for small space payloads. 

The activities of Ecliptic Enterprises encompass:

  • imaging and sensor technology for spacecraft,
  • small secondary, payload technologies,
  • space transportation technologies.
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Tuesday, 31 July 2012 19:01

Raytheon

Raytheon Company is an American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and commercial electronics. 

Established in 1922, the company re-incorporated in 1928 and adopted its present name in 1959. The company has around 72,000 employees worldwide.

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Wednesday, 25 July 2012 14:32

MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd (MDA)

MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd (MDA) is a Canadian aerospace, information services and products company, employing over 3000 people throughout Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, under the MDA brand name.

It is headquarted in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.

MDA provides commercial customers, industrial partners and governments (civil, defense, security, space, and R&D agencies) with information systems and solutions like: 

  • Space robotics, satellite, and payload systems;
  • Earth observation, airborne, surveillance, intelligence, and environmental monitoring;
  • Radar and optical satellite imagery, and remote sensing;
  • Mapping products.
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Sunday, 22 July 2012 05:50

IXAE

The X-ray Astronomy Experiment (IXAE) is a payload which was launched aboard the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite-P3 (IRS-P3) using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on 1996 March 21.

(see article IXAE observations of the X-ray pulsar XTE J1946+274 )

Published in Projects
Thursday, 19 July 2012 11:53

European Drawer Rack 2

The European Drawer Rack (EDR) is a single, six-post International Standard Payload Rack (ISPR) with seven Experiment Modules (EMs), each of which has separate access to power and cooling. A Video Management Unit sends streaming video, images, and science data to Earth via the Columbus module's high-rate data link and can temporarily store 72 GB of video. The experiments are largely autonomous to minimize data transfer requirements, though the EDR can be operated remotely via telescience or in real time by the crew via a dedicated laptop. The EDR has two different types of EMs: the standard International Space Station locker and the standard eight panel unit International Subrack Interface Standard (ISIS) drawer.

EDR is a multi-user facility on-board the International Space Station that accommodates a variety of science experiments. It is located in the Columbus Laboratory module and was developed for the European Space Agency by Alenia Spazio, a subsidiary of Thales Alenia Space. Like other payload racks in the station, the physical characteristics of EDR conform to the International Standard Payload Rack specification.

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Tuesday, 19 June 2012 13:18

Space Micro Inc.

Space Micro Inc specializes in payload and communications equipment for satellites.

Space Micro is proposing technologies that enable Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) electronic devices to be deployed in space. Radiation in space is damaging to electronics. Space Micro has patents for mitigating radiation effects on state-of-art commercial electronics. Space Micro offers space-qualified radiation hardened microelectronics, from radiation hardened by design (RHBD) technologies to space rated single board computers (RH SBC) and radios. Space Micro offers a fast space radiation hardened line of Proton™ Series RH computers to include the Proton200k™ DSP-based, Proton300k™ FPGA and Proton400k-L™ Multi-Core PowerPC-based processors. In addition to satellite computers, Space Micro offers satellite communications equipments to include compact µSDR™ radiation hardened software defined radio, µSGLS™ Space-Ground Link System, µSTDN ™, µX-Band ™ and µKa-Band ™ transmitters, transponders and Solid State Power Amplifiers (RH SSPA). Other Space Micro products include ProtonX-Box™ Avionics Suite, IPC5000™ Image Processing System, SEMS™ Space Weather Sensor Suite and Divert Attitude Control System (RH DACS). Other Space Micro developed technologies include TTMR™ & Patented (Time Triple Modular Redundancy) and H-CORE™ & Patented “Watch Dog” circuitry for Single Events Functional Interrupt (SEFI) space radiation mitigation. Technologies currently under development include DDR2 SDRAM and Monolithic RH Flash memories for advanced space processors. Space Micro is an employee-owned company based in San Diego, Calif., USA.

In addition to radiationed hardened electronics, Space Micro also designs novel materials and non-destructive evaluation techniques in the Advanced Materials Division. 

Clients include NASA, Missile Defense Agency (MDA), and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). 

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Thursday, 31 May 2012 10:21

Selex Galileo


Electronic, mechanical and optical equipment for space and defense; space attitude sensors and optical payload.

SELEX Galileo is a major defence electronics company that specialises in surveillance, protection, tracking, targeting, navigation and control, and imaging systems. It is owned by the Italian company Finmeccanica.

SELEX was created by the Eurosystems transaction between Finmeccanica and BAE Systems which saw the merger of their avionics businesses. Part of BAE Systems Avionics became SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems Ltd (SELEX S&AS), while part remained with BAE Systems, becoming part of BAE Systems North America Group.

From January 2008, SELEX S&AS and Galileo Avionica began to operate under a common brand name, SELEX Galileo. In January 2010, the operating companies’ legal names were aligned to the brand, becoming SELEX Galileo Ltd and SELEX Galileo S.p.A. respectively. SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems (US) Inc became SELEX Galileo Inc.

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