TacSat-2 is the first in a series of U.S. military experimental

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

and communication satellites.TacSat-2 (also known as JWS-D1 ((Joint Warfighting Space-Demonstrator 1) or RoadRunner) was an experimental satellite built by the

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

Air Force Research Laboratory The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research and development detachment of the United States Air Force Air Force Materiel Command, Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of direct- ...

with an operational life expected to be not more than one year as part of the "Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration" program.

Purpose

The TacSat series of experimental spacecraft are designed to allow military commanders on a battlefield to request and obtain imagery and other data from a satellite as it passes overhead. Collected data will be delivered to field commanders in minutes rather than hours or days. The sensor on TacSat-2 could collect color images sharp enough to distinguish ground objects as small as 1 meter in diameter.

Systems

Satellites in the TacSat series were planned to use commercial or available launchers, and largely off-the-shelf components, in order to reduce costs.

Satellite bus

The

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are less customized than specially-produced satelli ...

was built by MicroSat Systems Inc. (MSI) of

Littleton, Colorado Littleton is a home rule municipality city located in Arapahoe, Douglas, and Jefferson counties, Colorado, United States. Littleton is the county seat of Arapahoe County and is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Stati ...

. The core avionics of the spacecraft including command and data handling, electrical power switching and distribution, and subsystem and payload interfaces was handled by an Integrated Avionics Unit (IAU) developed by Broad Reach Engineering. The spacecraft flight software consisted of the low level drivers, and bus manager functionality provided by Broad Reach Engineering, ADCS Software by ASI, and a number of higher level applications by third parties, most notably the Autonomous Tasking Experiment (ATE) by Interface & Control Systems.

Camera / telescope

The developers originally asked for bids from contractors for a camera. These were priced at around US$10 million. The team then bought a high-end observatory

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...

costing around US$20,000 and then spent about $2 million to design and build a camera sensor, delivering a sensor capable of 1m ground resolution. The telescope had 50 cm aperture and was from RC Optical Systems.

Signals intelligence

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

payload, called the Target Indicator Experiment, detected radio wave emitters and could be used in concert with receivers on other platforms such as the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

's P-3C maritime patrol aircraft. Other systems included: * RoadRunner Onboard Processing Experiment (ROPE) * Common Data Link (CDL) * Autonomous Operations *

Hall Effect Thruster In spacecraft propulsion, a Hall-effect thruster (HET) is a type of ion thruster in which the propellant is accelerated by an electric field. Hall-effect thrusters (based on the discovery by Edwin Hall) are sometimes referred to as Hall thrust ...

(HET), 1st US HET in space, a Busek BHT-200. * Propulsion Instrument Electronics (PIE) sensor suite * Inertial Stellar Compass (ISC) * Low Power Transceiver (LPT) * Integrated GPS Occultation Receiver (IGOR) * Atmospheric Density Mass Spectrometer (ADMS) * Experimental solar array * Miniaturized Vibration Isolation System (MVIS)

Developers

Apart from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), other organisations participating included: * DoD Space Test Program (Space and Missile Systems Center's Space Development and Test Wing), *

United States Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. Located in Washington, DC, it was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, appl ...

, * United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command, *

Air Force Space Command An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...

, * , *

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, *

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

(JPL), * Busek, supplied the BHT-200

Hall-effect thruster In spacecraft propulsion, a Hall-effect thruster (HET) is a type of ion thruster in which the propellant is accelerated by an electric field. Hall-effect thrusters (based on the discovery by Edwin Hall) are sometimes referred to as Hall thruste ...

Launch

TacSat-2 was launched on 16 December 2006 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, Wallops Island Flight Facility, using an

Orbital Sciences Corporation Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...

(OSC) Minotaur I

launch vehicle A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...

. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport is a commercial space launch facility located on the

Delmarva Peninsula The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a peninsula on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Eastern Shore of Virginia. The peninsula is l ...

west of

Chincoteague, Virginia Chincoteague ( or ) is a town in Accomack County, Virginia, United States. The town includes the whole of Chincoteague Island and an area of adjacent water. The population was 3,344 at the 2020 census. The town is a tourist gateway to the Ch ...

Mission

The near circular orbit had a height of 410 km at an inclination of 40.0° to the

equator The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...

. TacSat-2 decayed on 5 February 2011.

References

External links

* * {{Orbital launches in 2006 Spacecraft which reentered in 2011 Spacecraft launched in 2006 Spacecraft launched by Minotaur rockets Satellites of the United States