Northrop system

Northrop Grumman has received a contract from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) for the integration of its Space Inertial Reference Unit (Scalable SIRU) into Nasa’s Solar Probe Plus mission.

The new system is part of $3m contract and is due for delivery by May 2016. It will offer critical rotation rate data that allows for the stabilisation, pointing and attitude control of satellites and space vehicles, as well as enabling the mission to fly through and look at the sun’s atmosphere.

Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems Navigation and Positioning Systems vice president Bob Mehltretter said: "Our Scalable SIRU was competitively selected for the Solar Probe Plus mission because of its unparalleled performance, accuracy and reliability.

"Our Scalable SIRU was competitively selected for the Solar Probe Plus mission because of its unparalleled performance, accuracy and reliability."

"The system is equipped with redundant components that meet the strict, high performance requirements of the anticipated seven-year mission."

Upon being launched in 2018, the Solar Probe Plus will explore the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, for the first time.

Integrating a combination of in-situ measurements and imaging, the spacecraft will study the reason for the sun’s outer atmosphere being much hotter than the sun’s visible surface, and the influence of solar wind on Earth and the solar system.

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Prior to the latest contract, Northrop delivered SIRU for integration into Nasa’s MESSENGER mission to orbit Mercury and the Global Precipitation Measurement mission.

Northrop claims that the patented hemispherical resonator gyro, which is at the heart of the SIRU, has recorded more than 28 million operating hours in space without a mission failure.

Image: Northrop Grumman’s Space Inertial Reference Unit. Photo: courtesy of Northrop Grumman Corporation.

Defence Technology