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Posts Tagged ‘Aurora Flight Sciences’

Orion UAS Contracted by US Air Force

Thursday, January 4th, 2018

Manassas, VA, January 3, 2018 – The U.S. Air Force has awarded a new $48 million contract to Aurora Flight Sciences for the continued development of the Orion Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS).

Orion is a twin-engine high performance UAS that can stay aloft over 100 hours at a time with payloads in excess of 1,000 pounds. Development of the Orion started in 2006 and its first flight was in August 2013. In December 2014, the Orion established the current UAS world endurance record with an 80-hour, 2-minute and 52-second flight.

The new contract funds the development of a certified version of Orion that will be suitable for deployment anywhere in the world. The work will be performed in Columbus, Mississippi, and Manassas, Virginia.

www.aurora.aero

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Aurora And MIT Celebrate Nine Years Of Student Robotics Program Success

Monday, August 14th, 2017

Zero Robotics MS Finals Summer 2017

Zero Robotics engages students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)
through computer programming and space research

Cambridge, MA, August 11, 2017 – Middle school students across the country today participated in a live interactive broadcast of NASA astronaut Jack Fischer operating satellites developed by Aurora and MIT aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The basketball-sized, battery operated satellites were controlled using computer code written by the students as part of the Zero Robotics summer learning program.

Founded by MIT’s Space Systems Laboratory and run in partnership with Aurora and the Innovation Learning Center, Zero Robotics is a robotic programming competition for middle and high school students. Students learn to write software to autonomously control the SPHERES satellites aboard the ISS. Each year, the Zero Robotics competition challenges students to address a real spaceflight operational scenario.

“Aurora is proud to partner with MIT on this innovative and engaging STEM-education program,” said John Langford, Aurora Chairman and CEO. “Zero Robotics has introduced thousands of students over the years to the wonders of spaceflight and robotics. With this next generation of scientists and engineers at the helm, the future of NASA’s space program looks exceptionally bright.”

Aurora built the SPHERES satellites and has partnered with MIT on the Zero Robotics program since its inception in 2008. Over the years, Aurora’s involvement has evolved to encompass competition coordination support, student mentoring, instructor education, and curriculum development.

This year’s middle school finals comprised of 13 teams hailing from 12 U.S. states and Russia. Zero Robotics is also open to high school students, with a tournament held each year between September to December for students grades 9-12. The Middle school competition is sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), the Northrop Grumman Foundation, and NASA. To learn more about the Zero Robotics program, and to view results from today’s competition, visit www.zerorobotics.mit.edu. To learn more about Aurora’s SPHERES program, visit www.aurora.aero/SPHERES.

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PCAS – The Final Piece

Monday, March 5th, 2012

We’ve mentioned the Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) program in the past. Remember the Vuzix Next Generation Display Technology we wrote about last Spring? It’s a major enabling technology but there’s still a lot going on.

Raytheon is the prime for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) PCAS program which is intended to allow the joint terminal attack controller (JTAC) the ability to rapidly engage multiple, moving and simultaneous targets within his area of responsibility. Additionally, the system will be designed to reduce collateral damage and potential fratricide to friendly forces. What’s more, PCAS is taking a ‘system-of-systems’ approach demonstrating the ability to digitally task a CAS platform from the ground.

DARPA’s been working the software, man-machine interface and JTAC portions of the program hard. The missing piece has been the aircraft in the loop. Recently, Aurora Flight Sciences was chosen to convert an A-10 CAS platform into an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) which may well be the most ambitious element of the program. Despite the Air Force’s long-term goal of retiring the most successful CAS aircraft ever built, ground forces are one step closer to controlling their own CAS. We foresee a day where ground force commanders own purpose-built CAS platforms controlled by non-rated JTACs.

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