MTG, Meteosat Third Generation, is a serie of geostationary meteorological satellites that will be procured and operated by the organisation EUMETSAT. 

Considering the long development cycle for a new observational space system, EUMETSAT has been working on the definition and the planning for a Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) system since the year 2000, as a continuation of the Meteosat (1st generation) and MSG (2nd generation) missions.

The Meteosat Third Generation series will comprise six satellites, with the first spacecraft likely to be ready for launch from 2018. The in orbit configuration will consist of two parallel positioned satellites, the MTG-I imager (a 3-tonne satellite with 16 nominal channels) and the MTG-S sounder. The sounder will be one of the key innovations in the new programme, allowing Meteosat satellites, for the first time, to not just image weather systems but to analyse the atmosphere layer-by-layer and perform far more detailed chemical composition studies.

Unlike the first and second generation Meteosat series, MTG will be based on three axes stabilised platforms, meaning the instruments will be pointed at the Earth for 100% of their in orbit time. Such improvements are necessary to achieve compliance with more demanding user requirements on spatial resolution; repeat cycle and signal to noise ratio, and are a prerequisite to conduct soundings from geostationary orbit.

MTG components providing continuity of MSG services need to be available around 2015, before the end of the nominal lifetime of MSG. MTG preparatory activities started end of 2000 in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA), following the decision of the EUMETSAT Council to proceed with a Post-MSG User Consultation Process. The process is aimed at capturing the foreseeable needs of users of EUMETSAT's satellite data in the 2015-2025 timeframe.

The JUpiter ICy Moon Explorer (JUICE) is a planned European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft to visit the Jovian system, focused in particular on studying three of Jupiter's moons; Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.

It will characterise these worlds, all thought to have significant bodies of liquid water beneath their surfaces, as potentially habitable environments. 

JUICE is the first large-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme. Planned for launch in 2022 and arrival at Jupiter in 2030, it will spend at least three years making detailed observations of the giant gaseous planet Jupiter and three of its largest moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) is a NASA satellite that is making a map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space.

The mission is part of NASA's Small Explorer program and launched with a Pegasus-XL rocket on October 19, 2008. 

Results from IBEX have repeatedly shocked the scientific community and overturned old theories. The first shock came when it revealed a narrow ribbon of energetic neutral atom (ENA) emission. Then it showed shifts over time in this band. Another surprise came when no bow shock was found. The repercussions of overturning the bow shock theory are huge, because decades of research are based on that concept.

The design and operation of the mission is being led by the Southwest Research Institute, with the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center serving as co-investigator institutions responsible for the IBEX-Hi and IBEX-Lo sensors respectively. The Orbital Sciences Corporation manufactured the spacecraft bus and was the location for spacecraft environmental testing.

The nominal mission baseline duration was two years to observe the entire solar system boundary. This was completed by 2011 and its mission was extended to 2013 to continue observations.

see also the SWRI site dedicated to IBEX.

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was a robotic spacecraft operated by NASA. It was launched in 2009.

The mission was conceived as a low-cost means of determining the nature of hydrogen detected at the polar regions of the moon.The main LCROSS mission objective was to explore the presence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater near a lunar polar region. It was successful in discovering water in the southern lunar crater Cabeus.

It was launched together with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on June 18, 2009, as part of the shared Lunar Precursor Robotic Program, the first American mission to the Moon in over ten years. Together, LCROSS and LRO form the vanguard of NASA's return to the Moon, and are expected to influence United States government decisions on whether or not to colonize the Moon.

LCROSS was designed to collect and relay data from the impact and debris plume resulting from the launch vehicle's spent Centaur upper stage (and data collecting Shepherding Spacecraft) striking the crater Cabeus near the south pole of the Moon.

Teledyne Reynolds offers custom designed and catalogue specified high voltage cable assemblies, connectors and wire for payload and launcher applications.

The custom designed products are manufactured in our clean facility, where specialised test requirements outside of our own test capabilities form part of a programme, the requirement is contracted to third parties including the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories.

Catalogue Products

Catalogue products are provided as specified in their data or in accordance with an agreed Acceptance Test Procedure (ATP). There is a facility for lot sample retention and the provision of data packs in accordance with customer requirements. Our catalogue products include:
600S (Space Use) Series: Our 600S subminiature, high reliability connectors have been specifically designed to operate over a long period of time in the hard vacuum of space. The operating voltage is 5 kVDC at a minimum of 10 millitorr to deep space, its operating temperature range is -55°C to +125°C.
600SQ Series: Our 66SQ subminiature, high reliability connectors are advanced, space qualified, single-pin high voltage connectors.
For additional information on 600S Series, please Download PDF

Custom Products

Payload specific interconnect solutions, designed in conjunction with payload integrators to meet the most highly specified performance and environmental demands.

Heritage

We have supplied cable assembly products to a number of major programmes including:
International Space Station.
BEPI Columbo.
Arianne V.

ABSL Space Products  is known as a leading supplier of Lithium-ion batteries for spacecraft and launch vehicles.

ABSL is a major supplier of primary and secondary Lithium-ion batteries to the space industry, having accumulated more than 10,000 cell years of operation in space without failure. Since pioneering the use of Lithium-ion with the world's first rechargeable Lithium-ion spacecraft battery (PROBA), we have received battery contracts for more than eighty spacecraft and launch vehicles. Thirty four of our battery systems have been launched powering spacecraft in various orbits. PROBA was designed for one-year mission duration and is still operating after nearly seven years in orbit.

Our battery products provide power to satellites and launch vehicles to:

• operate on-board instruments and experiments
• remain in the correct orbit and orientation
• communicate with the Earth

ABSL can supply batteries to meet the range of spacecraft and launch vehicle demands. ABSL primary batteries can be used for launch vehicle or ‘one shot’ spacecraft missions such as landers. ABSL secondary batteries are used on launch vehicles for avionics, pyrotechnic, flight termination and thrust vector control systems. On spacecraft, ABSL rechargeable battery systems mostly provide power during Launch and Early orbit OPerations (LEOP) periods as well as on station when solar arrays are in shadow. For all space applications, high reliability and assured performance in the most demanding of environments is key. ABSL batteries have proved incredibly reliable with industry leading performance with light weight being particularly important as this frees payload mass either for added spacecraft utility or launch capability.

Dynetics propulsion experts have developed a vacuum-rated, high voltage exciter system.

The system has many advantages over traditional exciter/ignition systems.

Features of the Integrated Exciter System:

• Lightweight
• Highly integrated
• Low power requirements
• Space rated
• Hermetically sealed design eliminates EMI leakage unlike traditional spark systems
• Close coupled plug and exciter eliminates need for a high voltage spark exciter wire, which is plagued with EMI leakage challenges

Company: Dynetics

Dynetics is an industry innovator in affordable micro-satellites and space propulsion systems development.

It is is an employee-owned engineering, applied science, and information technology company headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, USA. Its primary customers are the United States Department of Defense, the United States Intelligence Community, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Core Capabilities

• AEROSPACE VEHICLE RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, TEST, AND EVALUATION
• CYBERSECURITY
• ELECTRONIC DESIGN, ANALYSIS, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, AND FABRICATION
• EO/IR SYSTEMS RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, TEST, AND EVALUATION
• INSTRUMENTATION AND TELEMETRY
• INTEGRATED EXCITER SYSTEM
• INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE
• LOGISTICS
• MECHANICAL DESIGN, ANALYSIS, AND FABRICATION
• MICRO-SATELLITE SPACECRAFT
• MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS
• MODELING AND SIMULATION
• NETWORK SYSTEMS
• PROGRAM SUPPORT
• SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS
• SPACE PROPULSION
• SPACE SYSTEMS
• SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
• TRAINING

Mars Foundation is an American organisation with the mission to design, fund, build and operate the first permanent settlement on Mars (project called 'Mars Homestead Project').

The initial goal for the Mars Homestead Project is to identify the core technologies needed for an economical, growing Mars Base built primarily with local materials. Efforts will then be focused on prototype projects of increasing sophistication. These could include the selection of existing equipment which could be used on Mars, or the construction of prototypes of new equipment. These steps will lead the Mars Foundation to the establishment of an entire simulated Mars settlement at a location here on Earth, which will serve as a research and outreach center.

The initial programming feasibility study has been conducted by a small Program Team, whose members have professional or academic experience in applicable engineering areas. Areas of expertise include: Materials, Structures, Mechanical Systems, Architecture, Agriculture, Nutrition, Process/PSSS, Electrical Systems, I&C, Data/Telecom, EHS, IE, Mars Geology/Topography, Space Transportation, Spacesuits, Systems Integration, and many others.

The Mars Foundation has also established a small board of technical advisors who provide expertise in specific areas, and created a general "brainstorming" discussion group which is open to the interested public, regardless of their technical experience.

The company TriSept Corporation is a seasoned technical service provider to the space and intelligence communities.

It is a small business comprised of hand-selected industry and technology veterans that possess an average of over 27 years of broad-based experience necessary to successfully plan and execute the full space lifecycle and provide information assurance expertise to protect our Nation's sensitive information. 

TriSept takes advantage of the mass and fairing volume margin to add smaller spacecraft allowing more efficient access to space for all while reducing individual launch costs without an increase in risk to the mission.

Areas of Expertise

• Systems Engineering
• Program Management Support
• Satellite to Booster Integration
• Specialized Engineering Consultation
• Small Satellite Integration
• Spacecraft Development
• Mission Planning and Support
• Mission Operations