Peregrine Falcon Corporation

Innovative Payload Thermal Management Technology Thin Titanium Radiation Shields

Thin Titanium Radiation Shield Enclosures (TTRSE) provide an innovative replacement for Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) blankets improving the thermal isolation of instruments to their local environments. This solution yields a lower volume product with a potentially lower mass while also eliminating sources of contamination, Foreign Object Debris (FOD) and water entrapment. This innovation replaces the labor… [Continue Reading]

Diffusion Bonding

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is made of a consortium of nine countries and will be located in the south of France at the Cadarache Facility. The objective of ITER is to produce a sustained fusion reaction, one that generates 500 megawatts of energy from 50 megawatts of input power. This is a significant… [Continue Reading]

Gas Gap Thermal Switch

The Gas Gap Thermal Switch was a successful assembly designed and fabricated by the Peregrine Falcon Corporation for NASA and flown on the Space Transportation System on board the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-95). The Gas Gap Thermal Switch is presented in Figure 2 below. The switch operates by transferring or isolating a thermal load from… [Continue Reading]

Precision Machining of Beryllium

Peregrine typically machines pure beryllium material and beryllium alloys. In particular to pure beryllium, machining techniques and processes are important in achieving a successful product. Beryllium is a fracture critical material and has a tendency to “twin” when a machine tool comes into contact with the surface of the material. Twinning is small micro cracks… [Continue Reading]

Radiative Coupler for Spacecraft Instruments

Peregrine provided, manufactured and tested an enabling design which was a Radiative Coupler. The purpose of this device was to transport thermal energy from a sensor “on” gimbal to an “off” gimbal radiator. Typically, problems exist with the dissipation of thermal energy from a sensor that is located on a gimbaled system. In space where… [Continue Reading]

The ORBCOMM Constellation, Primary Structure

The ORBCOMM Constellation required the launching of multiple satellites in a single launch. The launches were planned on Pegasus and it was anticipated that eight satellites at a time would be launched. Figure 1 shows the eight satellites stacked upon each other ready to be loaded onto the Pegasus launch vehicle. Due to this launch… [Continue Reading]

Pulsating Heat Pipes

The increasing performance of space borne instruments, electronics and communication systems result in the need to dissipate much larger thermal loads while meeting demanding weight and size constraints. In addition, tight temperature control is also required for optical alignment needs, lasers, and detectors. There is a drive for miniaturization with micro electro-mechanical systems which creates… [Continue Reading]

Gimbaled Pointing Systems

In targeting roles, aircraft like the Airborne Laser and helicopters like Comanche can be equipped with gimbaled active or passive devices with a fully integrated suite of displays, command controls and communications. In direct reference to Comanche, the advanced infrared (IR) sensors had twice the range of OH-58D Kiowa Warrior and AH-64 Apache sensors. The… [Continue Reading]

Interface Plate for Cryocoolers

Some spacecraft instruments and detectors such as infrared systems and their focal planes require cooling down to cryogenic temperatures. There are three technologies that have traditionally been used to cool those focal plane arrays and instruments down to their optimum operating temperatures. Those technologies are stored cryogen cooling systems, cryogenic radiators, and cryocoolers. Stored cryogen… [Continue Reading]

The Development of the Liquid Flow Through Modules for the F-22 Common Integrated Processor

Our engineering and manufacturing people assisted in the development of Liquid Flow Through (LFT) for the Air Force’s F-22 Fighter Aircraft. These LFTs were used in the aircraft’s Common Integrated Processor (CIP). Printed Wiring Boards (PWB) were laminated to Liquid Flow Through (LFT) heat exchangers creating Line Replaceable Modules (LRMs). The LFT heat exchangers were… [Continue Reading]

Parabolic Reflectors for Passive Microwave Radiometers

Our people assisted with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Units (AMSU-A & B) space flight instruments, which were multi-channel passive microwave radiometers that measured global atmospheric temperature profiles from the advanced TIROS-N spacecraft. Aerojet Electronic Systems (now Northrop Grumman) was responsible for the delivery of the AMSU-A to NASA / NOAA. The AMSU-A system provides information… [Continue Reading]

Heat Exchanger with Low Resistance Leakage

At times, under certain medical conditions, it is important to control the overall temperature of the body. By lowering the temperature, there are certain medical advantages in order to slow down the recovery rate or response rate from a patient. This is done by inserting a catheter within the central venous system of the patient… [Continue Reading]

Cold Finger for GBI

The Ground Based Interceptor (GBI) mission is to intercept incoming ballistic missile warheads outside the earth’s atmosphere and destroy them by kinetic energy. The GBI consists of an Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) launched by a fixed land based booster. During flight the interceptor receives information from battle management, command, control and communications to update the… [Continue Reading]

Process Development/Process Verification

Nuclear Metals of Concord, Massachusetts requested that Peregrine assist in developing processes in parallel with their casting development of beryllium aluminum alloys. Primarily the interest of Nuclear Metals was for Peregrine to develop and confirm that the processes involved with attaching mechanical fasteners/ threaded inserts, adhesive bonding, and the ability to press and shrink fit… [Continue Reading]

XMM Newton Satellite RGA Structure

The XMM Newton Satellite carries three telescopes to measure x-rays generated from extremely violent events from distant celestial objects. The XMM Satellite has been placed in a highly eccentric orbit reaching about one third of the distance to the moon, allowing the telescopes and detectors to operate unencumbered from the earth’s atmosphere with unprecedented sensitivity.… [Continue Reading]

Shunt Resistor Bank (SRB) Heater Plates for Satellite Application

Peregrine, in collaboration with its Aerospace customer, undertook a design, manufacture and testing contract to produce a set of shunt resistor bank heater plates for a satellite application. Specific to this application, is the requirement to dissipate 900 Watts of thermal energy into space. Due to the environment of space, this thermal load had to… [Continue Reading]

RAH-66 Comanche, Torque Limiting Device

The Comanche RAH-66 reconnaissance and attack helicopter was developed by Boeing and Sikorsky for the US Army. The program entered engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) in June 2000, which required the construction of nine aircraft in addition to two prototypes. In an armed reconnaissance mission, Comanche could recognize and identify targets and digitally transmit the… [Continue Reading]