Developing Responsive and Agile Space Systems - Space-Library

Headlines
Headlines
Hyperspectral Imager Detects Mineral Deposits
Aerospace recently completed its
largest hyperspectral survey to date
using the SEBASS (Spatially Enhanced
Broadband Array Spectrograph
System) airborne sensor. The
Northern Quebec Survey Team, part
of the Spectral Applications Center
in Chantilly, Virginia, conducted an
extensive survey in the fall of 2008 to
look for precious metal deposits in an
860,000-acre area just south of the
Arctic circle near Hudson Strait.
The survey was conducted for
Goldbrook Ventures, a Canadian
mining company that owns approximately
half the acreage along the
Raglan Belt, a mining district known
for its nickel-sulfide deposits; some of
the surface rocks in this region are more than 3 billion years old.
SEBASS is a pushbroom hyperspectral imager that is mounted
aboard a Twin Otter airplane and flown over the region of interest.
For the Northern Quebec survey, SEBASS data was merged with
LIDAR data and shortwave hyperspectral sensor data. A schoolroom
in a tiny Inuit village near the survey site was used as an ad
hoc office to process the data.
“Northern Quebec is just one of many survey areas conducted
through Aerospace’s close collaboration with our commercial
Dean Riley and Mike Martino (third and fourth from left) with the pilots of
the Twin Otter aircraft in which the SEBASS instrument was installed.
Courtesy of Russ Hamilton
client, SpecTIR LLC in Reno,
Nevada,” said Karen Jones of Civil
and Commercial Operations.
“SpecTIR and Aerospace have
complementary sensors—our
SEBASS captures mid- to longwave
infrared spectral measurements
within the thermal emissive
range, and SpecTIR’s ProspecTIR
sensor captures the very near to
shortwave infrared. Our combined
sensors provide an unrivaled full
spectral hyperspectral capability,”
she said.
The survey revealed an extensive
nickel deposit, which was subsequently
confirmed by drilling on
the ground. This deposit, known
as the Mystery Prospect, is now in the early stages of development.
Niel Schulenburg, associate principal director for Advanced Sensor
Applications, noted, “The team covered more than 1700 square
kilometers in the airborne SEBASS survey. To meet the customer
coverage requirements, the team members had to significantly
modify their mission planning tools and collection operations, and
they were very successful. This effort gives us confidence in conducting
these types of large-area surveys in remote locations for
other commercial clients.”
Mission Assurance for Nuclear Security
The Aerospace Corporation has established a new Nuclear Operations
Directorate to support the Air Force Nuclear Weapons
Center and Air Force Space Command. Aerospace was brought in
to assist these organizations after a number of high-profile lapses
in nuclear security (by other organizations) came to light last year,
including the flight of live warheads across the country and the
shipment of nuclear fuses overseas.
“Initially, our focus was on identifying any issues not uncovered
by the various commissions reviewing U.S. nuclear operations,” said
David C. Evans, who heads the new directorate. “The emphasis has
begun to shift toward establishing processes to prevent recurrence
of the issues uncovered and development of metrics to measure the
health of the weapon system.”
Aerospace has established a team—led by William Ballhaus,
former Aerospace president and CEO—to conduct two mission assurance
reviews annually. The first review, in August 2008, examined
how the various organizations at Hill Air Force Base in Ogden,
Utah, support the Minuteman weapons system as well as the role
and effectiveness of the government and contractor team. Results
from that review played a role in the decision to stand up Air
Force Global Strike Command, which will be responsible for both
ICBMs and bombers with a nuclear mission. The second review,
completed in May 2009, added the topic of nuclear surety (i.e.,
safety and security) and assessed the practices of the ICBM System
Program Office, Air Force Space Command, and various organizations
at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Evans suggests that many of the problems in nuclear operations
have their roots in the same elements that caused the multitude of
launch failures at the end of the last decade. “In ICBMs, like space,
the weighting of the three program management elements went
from technical, schedule, and then cost to cost, schedule, and then
technical as budgets were cut. Decision makers seem to have overlooked
the fact that nuclear operations have zero tolerance for error,
and the performance standard is perfection,” he said.
Aerospace has a rich history of support to the nation’s ICBM
arsenal, dating back to the corporation’s founding in 1960. But,
says Evans, Aerospace was selected for this assignment based on
its demonstrated expertise in mission assurance and the ability to
find the root cause of problems. “Minuteman is not a very complex
system, but it is extremely intricate due to the number of interfaces
and the interrelationship of system components and processes,” he
said. “That is what mission assurance is all about—understanding
the interfaces and interdependencies.”
Evans hopes to see a return to the discipline that was the hallmark
of the Strategic Air Command. “I’m not saying we need to go
‘back to SAC,’ but everyone—military and contractor—needs to
regain the discipline to say ‘no’ if saying ‘yes’ would result in a performance
standard of less than perfection,” he said.
2 • Crosslink Summer 2009