Minature Satellites in Space

KC-135 Flight Experiments

The Reduced Gravity Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center provides the unique "weightless" or "zero-g" environment of space flight using a specially modified KC-135A. The KC flies parabolic arcs to produce weightless periods of 20 to 25 seconds. This capability is ideal for the development and verification of space hardware, experiments, crew training and basic research.

Flight tests of the SPHERES testbed onboard NASA's KC-135 accomplished two objectives: (1) establish the functionality of testbed systems and subsystems and (2) perform limited formation flight experiments. Flight experiments were conducted over two separate weeks in early 2000, once in mid-February and again in late March. The time between flights was used to refine operations protocols, improve testbed systems, and develop more complicated experiments using lessons learned from the first week of flights.

There is a always a history to such developments and to me not ever knowing of this process about the spheres, I find it very satisfying to have some "correlation of cognition."

Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellites


The MIT Space Systems Laboratory developed the SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites) laboratory environment to provide DARPA, NASA, and other researchers with a long term, replenishable, and upgradable testbed for the validation of high risk metrology, control, and autonomy technologies for use in formation flight and autnomous docking, rendezvous and reconfiguration algorithms. These technologies are critical to the operation of distributed satellite and docking missions such as Terrestrial Planet Finder and Orbital Express.



Most would not understand the significance of this posting.

For me it is the correlation of insight that I had in a dream sometime ago, about my future. Most would not of thought that we would be capable as human beings to have this ability, to be able to project people we will become, to a people who are working in relation to what is developing and was developed in this post.

In my dream I am releasing a satellite, a Christmas tree design one without all the bells and lights.