NDS
Nudet Detection System
For nearly two decades, Raytheon Ktech has been providing Sandia National Laboratories with key engineering expertise for its involvement in the NUDET Detection System (NDS) on GPS satellites.
GPS IIA Satellite
equipped with NDS |
GPS IIR satellite
equipped with NDS
and NAP |
The GPS constellation, in addition to providing navigation and timing information, is equipped with a sensor package developed at Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories. The remote sensor package, commonly referred to as NDS, addresses the war fighting and counter-proliferation needs of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Energy (DOE).
As the capability of NDS and the needs of Sandia grew over time, Raytheon Ktech responded with its support in developing the NDS Augmentation Payload (NAP). The NAP involved new telemetry links and was a unique endeavor for Sandia in that it required the erection of a ground station to recover data from NAP. Raytheon Ktech provided engineering support and engineering expertise during all phases of this expansion from selection of the tracking antenna system vendor, to antenna installation, to development of key software technologies. In February 2001, Sandia and Raytheon Ktech flawlessly received the data from NAP on GPS IIR-7 for the first time.
NAP Ground Station at Sandia National Laboratories |
