L3Harris designed, built and integrated the propulsion system at its Redmond, Washington facility, providing the thrust and control required for various phases of the mission. “Knowing that the propulsion system our team designed, built and installed on the IMAP spacecraft will enable researchers to expand our knowledge of our galactic neighborhood is very rewarding,” said Matt Carollo, director of the Space Systems Program Office at L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne segment.
The propulsion subsystem includes three propellant tanks, service and latch valves, filters, transducers, temperature sensors, heaters and 12 MR-111G monopropellant rocket engines. “Our thrusters enable IMAP’s attitude control system to steer the spacecraft, perform orbit insertion, adjust its spin rate and perform corrective maneuvers as needed to maintain its orbit,” said Chris Sebastian, lead program engineer.
IMAP carries 10 scientific instruments to address how solar particles are energized and how the solar wind interacts with interstellar space at the heliosphere’s boundary. Princeton University professor David J. McComas leads the mission with a team of more than 27 institutions, with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory responsible for building and operating the spacecraft under NASA’s Heliophysics Division.
