HUNTSVILLE, Ala., - Above: Space Development Corp., in Huntsville, Alabama, announced the successful test of its proprietary propulsion control system for its Prometheus free-flying orbital mission by. All tests were performed as expected. Above: Space designs and develops adaptable, space-based microgravity platforms for government and commercial customers,
The scalable Prometheus will include three regulated voltage rails and up to 29W of continuous power. It will also feature an integrated thermal control system, bus Integration and up/down links for communications and data.
The tests were conducted at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center Flat Floor Facility in Huntsville on a specially designed flat surface which allows objects to glide across a frictionless cushion of air. In the past, the facility has been used for construction of space shuttles and other space technologies.
Microgravity environments are also being seen as important and productive environments for manufacturing pharmaceuticals, and thin films as well as for defense as the U.S. continues to develop its military capabilities in space.
"Together with our test partner at NASA, Above: Space successfully validated our proprietary propulsion system which will be used to maneuver our 150U Prometheus payload platform next year," says Rhonda Stevenson, chief executive officer of Above: Space. "We plan to be the first mission to offer stabilized micro-g and dynamic environments and already have significant demand from commercial customers in our mission."
Late last month, Above: Space announced it and Electric Sky in Seattle successfully tested ts first rapidly deployable, free-flying on-orbit platform, Archimedes, serving as an orbital system for solar panels, beamed power, and electronically steerable antenna arrays for communications and monitoring, as well as other space infrastructure functions.
The Electric Sky power demonstration showed that an adaption of existing radio-frequency technology can transmit electric energy from one location to another.
“Electricity is plentiful and cheap here on the ground but scarce and expensive in space; we remedy that imbalance,” says Robert Millman, CEO of Electric Sky. “In this lab-bench test, El-Sky wirelessly powered a laser carried by Archimedes, which can be scaled to enable ‘electrical substations’ in space.”
