Description of the Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) mission system

Abstract

The Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) Project is sponsored by the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) as part of the work conducted by the Technology Demonstration Mission (TDM) Office. The goal of GPIM is to advance the technology readiness level (TRL) of a green propulsion technology based on the monopropellant AF-M315E via flight demonstration. Ball Aerospace & Technolo-gies Corp. (Ball Aerospace) is leading an Industry, NASA and Department of Defense (DoD) team to execute the GPIM Project. The green propellant propulsion subsystem (GPPS) is being developed and manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne. Ball Aerospace is providing the spacecraft bus, a Ball Configu-rable Platform (BCP)-100, to which the GPPS payload is integrated. Ball is providing all spacecraft level assembly, integration and test (AI&T) activities and manages launch services and flight operations. The Air Force Space & Missile Systems Center (SMC) will launch GPIM as a secondary payload via the STP-2 Mission. The GPIM space vehicle will be operated through SMC's Multi-Mission Satellite Operations Center (MMSOC). This paper describes the BCP-100 space-craft and its straight-forward modification to accommodate and operate the GPPS, the GPIM launch vehicle interface and ground system.