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COPYRIGHT 2006 Access Intelligence, LLC.
by Michael P. Kleiman
Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate Public Affairs
An eight-person team at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate here believes their experiment will demonstrate the innovative technology of combined attitude control and energy storage on a satellite by the summer of 2007.
The experiment consists of three flywheels spinning between 16,000 and 40,000 revolutions per minute. For decades, flywheels, or rotational disks, have been used as spacecraft positioning devices, but have not been extensively considered for power purposes. The success of the Flywheel Attitude Control, Energy Transmission and Storage, or FACETS, system's trial could change that perspective.
"I'm definitely looking forward to demonstrating the combined energy storage and attitude control capability of FACETS and showing the feasibility of something that has never been done...
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