Ball Aerospace Completes NPP Instrument Verification And Test

Boulder, CO - Ball Aerospace recently completed the integration of the engineering models for three of the instruments scheduled to fly on the National Polar-orbiting Operational Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) spacecraft bus. The models will test and verify mechanical and electrical interfaces between the instruments and the spacecraft before installation of the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS), the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CRiS) and the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) is completed later next year.

In addition, Ball Aerospace developed and qualified the first fault-tolerant, spacecraft-to-payload 1394 interface for use in space, and completed verification of the interface on NPP's instrument engineering models. The 1394 interface is used for high-data-rate applications and operates at 100 megabits per second.

"The successful integration of the instrument engineering models onto NPP is a significant milestone for this program," says David L. Taylor, president and chief executive officer of Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. "This extensive testing allows us to have the spacecraft fully prepared before instrument integration begins and it demonstrates true progress on the NPOESS program."

NPP, the mission precursor for NPOESS will provide data continuity between the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and Aqua missions and NPOESS, and provide technical risk reduction for NPOESS. Under contract to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Ball Aerospace will provide the spacecraft, perform satellite-level testing and integrate instruments provided by NPOESS prime contractor Northrop Grumman. Ball Aerospace is also providing one of four instruments selected for the flight, the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS).

OMPS is the next-generation ozone monitoring system designed to collect total column and vertical profile ozone data and continue the daily global data produced by the current ozone monitoring systems, the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Radiometer/2 (built by Ball Aerospace for NOAA POES spacecraft) and Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (built by Ball Aerospace for Nimbus 7).

The NPP Project is a joint effort between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA. Scheduled to launch in 2008, NPP is expected be in orbit prior to the end of the EOS Aqua mission, as well as to provide data overlap with the NPOESS spacecraft.

SOURCE: Ball Corporation