Space-Based Laser Team Advances
Design With Successful Test
Source: Space Daily January 25, 2001
Team SBL-IFX, a joint-venture comprising TRW, Lockheed
Martin and Boeing, is using integrated ground tests of the Alpha
high-energy laser, its beam projection telescope and associated beam
alignment and correction system to test design concepts for the
Space-Based Laser Integrated Flight Experiment (SBL-IFX), an
experimental space-based missile defense system proposed by the Air
Force and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. In the photo,
technicians from TRW and Lockheed Martin check the alignment of the
primary (gold) and secondary (black "can on quadropod) optics of the
beam projection telescope used in recent tests to gather data on how
best to measure and maintain the pointing of the SBL-IFX beam director
during high-energy lasing events. The telescope is located at TRW's
Capistrano Test Site in Southern California in a special vacuum
chamber that simulates the space environment. During on-orbit
operations, the SBL-IFX beam director will be used to expand, project
and focus a high-energy laser beam on a boosting missile target.
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El Segundo - Data from a recent integrated ground test
of the Alpha high-energy laser, its beam director telescope and the
associated beam alignment and correction system have provided the team
developing the Space-Based Laser Integrated Flight Experiment
(SBL-IFX) with new information about how best to monitor and maintain
the pointing of the SBL-IFX beam director on orbit. The beam director
is the part of the Air Force and Ballistic Missile Defense
Organization's (BMDO) proposed experimental missile defense system
that will project the high-energy laser beam across space and focus it
on a distant boosting missile target.
Team SBL-IFX, a joint venture comprising Lockheed Martin
(NYSE:LMT), TRW (NYSE:TRW) and Boeing (NYSE:BA), conducted the
six-second lasing test on Dec. 8 at TRW's Capistrano Test Site near
San Clemente, Calif. It was performed as part of the team's current
$240 million SBL-IFX development contract with the Air Force.
This latest test involved generating a megawatt-class
laser beam with the TRW-built Alpha, then feeding it through the
Lockheed Martin-built beam control system and a 4-meter diameter beam
director telescope, both of which are housed in a special vacuum
chamber that simulates the space environment. The primary goal of the
test was to determine if the telescope's metrology systems could
maintain the pointing and proper alignment of its primary and
secondary optics during a high-energy lasing event.
"The test was a solid success," declared Col. Neil
McCasland, director of the Air Force's SBL-IFX project office. "The
laser operated nominally, the software designed to maintain the
positions of the beam director optics during lasing performed as
designed, and we collected a wealth of diagnostic data about the
high-energy laser environment. It's all part of our ongoing strategy
to use the Alpha LAMP integrated test bed to identify and rigorously
test design concepts that will lead us to a successful on-orbit
demonstration of the SBL-IFX."
The telescope and beam alignment and correction system
used during the test are both operated by Lockheed Martin. They were
integrated with the Alpha laser in the early 1990s as part of the
Alpha LAMP (Large Advanced Mirror Program) Integration program, one of
several previous SBL technology demonstration programs.
A secondary goal of the test, added McCasland, was to
determine if laser characteristics such as power, beam uniformity and
frequency spectrum would be adversely affected by the interaction of
the laser beam with the optical systems used to correct, point and
focus the beam on its target. Initial evaluation of the test data
indicates that no such adverse interactions occurred.
"A critical part of a successful on-orbit IFX
demonstration is being able to know precisely where the beam director
will direct the laser beam," explained Art Woods, Lockheed Martin's
SBL program manager. "We proved with this test that the metrology
systems designed to measure the alignment of the beam director
telescope and the relationship between the beam director's primary and
secondary mirrors can operate effectively in the presence of the
high-power laser beam."
Without these metrology systems, he added, the IFX laser
beam could become distorted, which would degrade its strength or cause
it to miss its target altogether. "The data we collected during this
test will guide us in designing and producing a reliable, low-risk
beam director," said Woods.
The integrated Alpha/LAMP test is the latest in a series
of technical risk reduction activities that Team SBL-IFX has
undertaken since May 1999 to develop and mature the component
technologies required to produce, integrate and perform a ground-based
demonstration of a full-scale SBL-IFX integrated test unit before the
end of the decade. Plans call for the SBL-IFX, a satellite carrying a
high-energy laser, to be launched in 2012, with an on-orbit
demonstration of its defensive capabilities against a live, boosting
target planned for 2013.
Team SBL-IFX comprises TRW Space & Electronics Group,
Redondo Beach, Calif.; Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space Operations,
Sunnyvale, Calif.; and Boeing Space & Communications Group, Seal
Beach, Calif.
SBL at LA AFB: http://www.sbl.losangeles.af.mil/
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/laser-01a.html
TRW: http://www.trw.com/