The patented hemispherical resonating gyro (HRG) technology from Northrop Grumman has overtaken the 10 million hours mark of continuous service in support of many commercial and military space applications.
The gyros are critical components of inertial navigation
systems that enable the stabilization, tracking and attitude control of
satellites and spacecraft.
'Northrop Grumman's HRG is a high accuracy, extremely reliable
gyro that has experienced no mission failures. It combines high
performance with the longest life of any inertial technology now in
space,' said Gorik Hossepian, vice president of Navigation and
Positioning Systems for Northrop Grumman's Navigation Systems Division.
'It has no moving parts and its simple design, small size, low noise
output and high radiation tolerance make it an ideal gyro for extended
space missions.'
Installed in Northrop Grumman's space qualified inertial
reference systems, the HRG with its thin-walled quartz shell sensing
element has been used in over 90 space missions. Applications include
commercial, military and civil/scientific programs for domestic and
international customers.
Based on scientific observations over 200 years ago on a
'ringing' wineglass, this technology was first used on the Near Earth
Asteroid Rendezvous mission, the first of NASA's Discovery missions and
the first mission ever to place a spacecraft into orbit around an
asteroid.
The newest product employing HRG technology is Northrop
Grumman's scalable space inertial reference unit (Scalable SIRU). The
Scalable SIRU was instrumental in achieving the scientific objectives
of the highly successful MESSENGER and Deep Impact program missions.
The Scalable SIRU and its predecessor, the space inertial
reference unit (SIRU), supply critical angular rate and linear
acceleration data for use in satellites and spacecraft for
stabilization, tracking and attitude control. |
