Raytheon Company has reason to celebrate as one of its space sensors has recently completed its second year in orbit. This ground-breaking space sensor design known as ‘The Advanced Responsive, Tactically Effective Military Imaging Sensor’ or ARTEMIS has exceeded its expected life by 100%.
The ARTEMIS had been originally programmed for a year long experimental mission and was launched into space on board the Air Force Research Laboratory’s TacSat-3 in May 2009. Since it performed beyond expectations the US Air Force Space Command took over control of the TacSat-3 for operational use in June 2010.
It has since then improved the sensor tasking to product dissemination process for delivering actionable information to the war fighter. The ARTEMIS is a hyperspectral sensing system, operating in the visible to shortwave infrared wavelengths.
Col. John Kress, Air Force Space Command, chief, Missile Warning, Missile Defense and Surveillance Operations said that the TacSat-3 has far exceeded expectations in both its superior imaging performance and in its operational service life. The unique TacSat-3 hyperspectral imaging capability continues to provide valuable information to combatant commanders he added.
Bill Hart, vice president, Raytheon Space Systems said that hyperspectral sensors allowed them to detect the otherwise undetectable. He added that the company was in discussions with several government customers the potential for deploying additional hyperspectral systems, either as a single, multiband system or a constellation of disaggregated capabilities.