Responsive Flight Testing of a Launch Hardware Tracker Experiment Using a Prototype Nanosat Launch Vehicle

摘要

Development of a nanosat launch vehicle (NLV) that is capable of delivering 10 kg to low earth orbit has resulted in significant progress during the past year. Most visibly, an early prototype reusable launch vehicle (RLV) based on the proposed NLV first stage successfully conducted two low-altitude flights within a period of just 3.5 hours, Of particular relevance to the small sat community, this Prospector 7 (P-7) vehicle manifested several academic payloads and demonstrated the feasibility of using existing payload accommodation concepts for deploying CubeSat-class spacecraft. Subsequently, in a tangible demonstration of the potential benefits that can be achieved with a small RLV, this same vehicle was then used for the initial flight test of an engineering prototype of a proposed Reentry Breakup Recorder (REBR). By enabling the use of existing lab and commercially available hardware, this Launch Hardware Tracker experiment provided the REBR team a low cost, early opportunity to test and evaluate the core GPS tracking and Iridium telemetry functions in an actual launch enviromuent. Furthenuore, the successful recovery of both the experiment and the P-7 enables continued flight testing in the near future at a fraction of the cost that would otherwise be associated with expendable systems.