Introduction: New Millennium Program Space Technology 8: Validation Through Modeling and Test

摘要

IN 2003, NASA selected an ensemble of four technologies for validation on the New Millennium Program (NMP) Space Technology 8 (ST-8) flight [1]. These technologies included 1) a new miniature heat pipe technology for thermal control on small satellites, 2) a 40 m deploy able boom intended for application to solar sails, 3) a parallel-processing flight computer system built from commercial-of-the-shelf processors, and 4) a low-mass high-power solar electric array. This issue of the journal includes a collection of papers describing the NMP ST-8 technologies and results.