Displaying items by tag: Scalable SIRU™

The Scalable SIRU™ is an inertial unit for spacecraft navigation system. It is commercialized by Northrop Grumman Corporation. 'SIRU' stands for 'Scalable Space Inertial Reference Unit'.

It combines innovation and high reliability. According to Northrop Grumman Corporation it records (July 2013) 100 percent mission success in more than 22 million on-orbit hours and 147 billion miles traveled—for precision performance on space missions.

The Hemispherical Resonator Gyro (HRG) sensor on the Scalable SIRU™ is composed of three simple machined quartz parts— an outer shell, a high-Q vibrating hemispherical resonator and an inner shell. The quartz construction of the HRG is inherently stable, impervious to aging effects, and naturally radiation hardened.

Applications: The Scalable SIRU™ is performing sensor pointing/stabilization and spacecraft attitude control on demanding long-term space missions. Each of the four inertial sensor channels can be operated independently by either of the two power supply/processors, providing a probability of mission success of 0.997 for a 15-year mission.