The Creare – West Coast Solutions (WCS) Team has successfully delivered custom, flight-qualified space hardware to the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory for integration into the HyTI (Hyperspectral Thermal Imager) Satellite. HyTI, funded by NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office InVEST (In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies) program, will demonstrate an actively cooled cryogenic spectrometer on a 6U CubeSat platform. Launch is scheduled for Spring 2022. HyTI addresses the need for high spectral and spatial resolution long-wave infrared image data for quantifying the chemical composition and temperature of the Earth’s solid surface, its oceans, and its atmosphere. Many important phenomena rely on such data, and repetitive, global scale measurements are needed to help better understand our complex climate. The value of HyTI to Earth scientists will be demonstrated to generate geolocated and calibrated spectral radiance, solar irradiance and atmospheric data, with a focus on rapid delivery of precision agriculture metrics. Currently there is no other satellite providing this information.
Figure 1. 3D rendering of the HyTI bus configuration as of October 2020
WCS serves as the lead for the Cryocooler Systems Engineering on the HyTI Team. In this role they provided critical Subject Matter Expertise on all aspects on cryocooler integration, including exported vibration mitigation, thermal management, and electromagnetic interference mitigation. In addition, WCS worked in partnership with Creare LLC, to develop the Creare Micro Cryocooler Control Electronics for Tactical Space (MCCE-TS) as well as the Creare/WCS Active Ripple Filter (CARF) electronics. The MCCE-TS product brings a lower cost and more compact controller to the space cryocooler market. The CARF electronics will filter out EMI generated by the cryocooler that would otherwise impact the data signal. This will be the first space launch for both the MCCE-TS and CARF products, with more expected to follow. “Working with Creare and West Coast Solutions on the HyTI program was excellent, they were very professional and very responsive. During the pandemic, delays were planned and accounted for to maintain schedule. I would absolutely work with both companies again.”, said Miguel Nunes, the Deputy Director of the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory as well as the Deputy Primary Investigator (PI) and systems engineer for the HyTI program.
Creare is an innovative technology and product development company of 170 people and located in Hanover, NH. For almost 60 years, Creare’ s world-class engineers and staff have collaborated to solve problems and bring ideas from the drawing board to high-performance products for critical applications. Their efforts have resulted in new companies that dominate their market segment to solutions that have enabled the exploration of space and efficient manufacture of critical defense systems. The current work leverages the expertise of Creare’ s and WCS’s space cryocooler and electronics business areas to provide a solution that meets new space customer needs.
WCS is a multidisciplinary team of experienced aerospace and defense professionals committed to solving technical problems concerning cryogenics, space electronics, and expeditionary power. Their extensive body of work include many successful Department of Defense, space, civil research, and commercial programs. The company is 6 years old and serves its customers from their recently expanded facility in Huntington Beach, CA.
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