Launcher One is an air launched satellite vehicle for payload delivery to low-earth orbit. The carrier aircraft is the White Knight Two. At the designated waypoint, Launcher One will be released from the White Knight Two at an altitude of approximately 50,000 feet. Launcher One then free falls for approximately 3 seconds before first stage ignition.
My role in this effort was to develop a prototype GN&C and flight control system technology demonstrator as part of the DARPA Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) phase I contract effort. Developed algorithms and code for avionics and systems that included flight controls, TVC actuator controls. Simulation systems comprised of numerical methods, PID controls, deterministic rate structured timing, UDP Ethernet interfaces, and OpenGL graphics programming. The system was based on embedded computer platforms operating a deterministic rate structured executive with a 200 Hz frame rate.
Hardware segments included a vehicle flight control computer and I/O modules combined with a vehicle dynamics simulation and a mission specialist control console. Software elements included simulation of pitch/yaw thrust vector control, vehicle mass properties and rotation rates, mode select, safe/arm logic, status information, strip charts, valve/plumbing state controls & displays, and telemetry data display. All software developed with Linux OS, and the C programming language.
Position: Senior Systems Engineer for flight controls and avionics architecture development.
Development Tools: Unix, OpenGL, MATLAB/Simulink, Ethernet, C++, and various hardware platforms and modules.