The ACTEX-I Guest Investigator program - Lessons learned and future opportunities

摘要

This paper presents a review of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Advanced Controls Technology Experiment (ACTEX-I) Guest Investigator (GI) program. ^Focusing on lessons learned from the program, the paper provides the AFRL perspective on positive and negative points of the program. ^The paper gives a description of the next AFRL GI opportunity, the Satellite Ultraquiet Isolation Experiment (SUITE), due to be launched in the fall of 1999. ^The SUITE GI program addresses several shortcomings that were identified with the ACTEX-I program both in the flight hardware capabilities and in the planning and execution of the GI program itself. ^(Author)