Redwire has awarded Voyager Technologies a subcontract for the Otter mission for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to supply its high-precision Acceleration Measurement System (AMS).
The Otter mission is a Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) mission, tasked with collecting data for air-breathing electric propulsion technologies, which are designed to turn low-density air into propulsion. DARPA awarded Redwire a phase 2 contract for the program late last year.
Voyager’s AMS is designed to provide delta-V and acceleration data for precise spacecraft maneuvers. The Otter mission will require frequent propulsion to stay in orbit amid the higher atmospheric drag that is a feature of VLEO.
Previously, Voyager’s AMS technology supported NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) constellation, which set a record for the closest separation of a multi-spacecraft formation,
“Missions like Otter demand precise, repeatable thrust control, and that’s exactly what our system delivers,” said Matt Magaña, president of Space, Defense & National Security, Voyager. “This flight-proven hardware has performed flawlessly on several of NASA’s high-profile missions. We’re bringing that same level of precision to Redwire and DARPA, helping unlock a new class of maneuverable spacecraft in VLEO.”
