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The infrared imaging payload – called PIRPL (short for prototype infrared payload) – is a 110-pound multispectral camera that will collect data about the environment in low Earth orbit.
WASHINGTON – A Northrop Grumman spacecraft launch scheduled for August 10 during a resupply mission to the International Space Station, will provide 8,200 pounds of crew supplies, equipment and science experiments.
Among the scientific payloads aboard the Cygnus NG-16 is an infrared imaging sensor that will collect data on the low Earth orbit environment. The Pentagon’s Space Development Agency will use the data to develop thermal sensors capable of detecting hypersonic missiles and other advanced weapons in flight.
Cygnus NG-16 will fly on a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. His meeting with the ISS is scheduled for August 12.
The infrared imaging payload – called PIRPL (short for prototype infrared payload) – is a 110-pound multispectral camera also manufactured by Northrop Grumman under a $ 13.8 million contract with Space Development. Agency (SDA) and the Missile Defense Agency.
This is SDA’s first experiment to support its tracking layer, a planned constellation of small sensor satellites in low Earth orbit.
“Upon arrival at the Space Station, PIRPL will begin collecting infrared data and expanding detection capabilities that will aid in the development of algorithms for the next generation of tracking satellites,” Northrop Grumman said on Aug. 9 in a Press release.
PIRPL will collect images throughout the NG-16 mission which is expected to last approximately three months. After Cygnus leaves the space station, PIRPL will be released from the spacecraft and will briefly operate in free-flight mode so it can collect more data from different angles before it burns up in the atmosphere, an SDA official said on a call with reporters.
The imagery “will help us understand what the Earth’s infrared backgrounds look like from this type of orbit,” the SDA official said.
Current US military missile warning satellites are equipped with powerful infrared sensors capable of detecting ballistic missile launches from geosynchronous orbit 22,000 miles above Earth. The satellites in the SDA tracking layer will be in orbits of less than about 600 miles. The agency therefore needs data samples to develop algorithms capable of identifying targets in the middle of the clutter.
“One of the goals is to see what we can do from LEO orbit which is quite new for this type of mission,” said the official. “We have to understand what the atmosphere, the clouds, the surface of the earth, the land and the ocean look like at different times of the day and night.”
The SDA and the Missile Defense Agency want “to show that we can perform these missions in a lower Earth orbit, that we are able to get much closer to threats,” said the agency official. Another reason for the PIRPL experiment is to test the performance of the sensors when moving at very fast speeds in low orbits, compared to current fixed sensors from geostationary satellites.
“We call it a complex background,” the SDA official said of low earth orbit. “We need to check whether the LEO data can be processed successfully to perform the same missions that we do well in high orbit. “
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