Description of the FORTE Satellite

FORTE (Fast On-orbit Recording of Transient Events) is a small satellite designed to make radio frequency (rf) and optical measurements of geophysical phenomena. It also will demonstrate technologies of potential use for verifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The design philosophy was to produce a simple spacecraft to meet mission requirements using existing technologies while advancing payload technologies within the scope of the program. To this end the bus was constructed and integrated at Los Alamos largely from off-the-shelf subsystems. Two notable exceptions requiring significant technology developments other than the payloads are the all graphite composite structure, and a large (10-m) deployable dual log periodic array antenna for the rf payload. The current launch date aboard a Pegasus-XL vehicle is late July, 1997. An overview of the satellite bus and payloads, as well as early on-orbit results will be presented in this talk. Greater detail on specific bus and payload subsystems will be presented in several other talks at this conference