Redwire is developing the Optical Metrology Network In-situ (OMNI), a touchless metrology system designed for large deployable space-born apertures. This metrology system gives the user real-time knowledge of a large object’s shape, even as it distorts from thermal or slewing loads on orbit.
Redwire’s metrology system comprises a set of discreet sensors that can be hard-mounted to the side of a spacecraft with a set of unpowered targets hard-mounted to the surface of interest. Using Redwire’s patented algorithms, the metrology system characterizes the full surface of interest from touchless, invisible measurements. High-accuracy results are returned at fast refresh rates. The metrology system can scale to serve apertures of various shapes with areas of 10m2 to 1000m2.
Last October, Redwire engineers successfully completed a live ground technology demonstration of the OMNI system. Hosted by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the test used the OMNI system to measure a prototype of Redwire’s Structurally Combined Aperture with Reticulated Locking Extendible Truss (SCARLET), a deployable structure designed to support large-aperture payloads. For this technology demonstration, the prototype’s surface of interest was 3.2m tall and 7.6m long.
“The potential this technology appears to have for high precision measurements makes it exciting for application to metrology of space structures as well as other missions,” said Andrew Sinclair, Metrology Lead on AFRL’s SSPIDR project and Technical Advisor to AFRL’s Spacecraft Component Technology Branch.
