Global Applications of UTC Aerospace ISR Systems

NOTE: This meeting will be held at UTC Aerospace Systems. Attendance is limited to U.S. Citizens with a driver's license or government issued photo ID

Aerial imaging systems have been used for a variety of applications since photography came into being in the 1800’s. The First World War saw the first widespread use of aerial photography for military reconnaissance missions. Today, ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) is a critical military asset used in theaters worldwide to counter the varied threats that exist across the globe.

UTC Aerospace ISR Systems (Westford, MA), the former Itek Optical Systems, has been at the forefront of space-borne and airborne ISR systems for more than a half century. The United States and more than a dozen countries use reconnaissance systems designed and manufactured at ISR Systems. The presentation will describe the operational employment of these systems in global environments and illustrate how imagery is used for both military and civilian applications.

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The Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration: a Successful First Step for Deep-Space Lasercom Systems

Radio waves have been the standard method for deep-space communications since the Apollo Mission. However, the recent success of the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD) program will clearly revolutionize the way data is sent and received from deep space. LLCD demonstrated record-breaking optical up/downlinks between Earth and the Lunar Lasercom Space Terminal (LLST) payload on NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere Environment Explorer (LADEE) satellite orbiting the Moon.  The system included the development of a novel space terminal, a novel ground terminal, two major upgrades of existing ground terminals, and a capable and flexible ground operations infrastructure. This talk will give an overview of the system architecture and the several terminals, basic operations of both the link and the whole system, and some typical results focusing on operations.

This work is sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Air Force Contract #FA8721-05-C-0002. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the United States Government.

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