Tye Brady
Space Systems Engineer, Vehicle & Ground Systems Group
Technical Lead, Inertial Stellar Compass (ISC)
 “The most satisfying part about the ISC project is knowing that for the first time ever, a MEMS gyro has been proven
to work in space. That’s an awesome feeling. There’s only one ‘first’ for something,” says Tye Brady. “It really goes right along with Draper’s charter to design unique, first-of-a-kind solutions, and it will impact the way spacecraft GN&C
systems are built in the future.”
Draper’s Inertial Stellar Compass (ISC) is a real-time, miniature, low-power stellar inertial attitude determination system,
composed of an active pixel sensor star camera and a MEMS gyro assembly. Launched in late 2006 as part of the AFRL’s
TacSat-2 satellite, the ISC has been completely successful as a technology demonstration of a miniature spacecraft attitude
determination system. According to Brady, one of the biggest technical challenges for the device was maintaining its lowpower
aspect. At 3.6 watts, ISC uses 3 times less power than any equivalent combined gyroscope star tracker system.
ISC exemplifies the breadth of Draper’s expertise. “We thought of the idea, did the proposal ourselves, and then delivered
by meeting both budget and technical goals. The device builds on Draper’s traditional reputation in GN&C because we
delivered not just the software, but the complete hardware package, too. We built the entire system,” he says.
Engineers from a variety of disciplines throughout Draper were enlisted to help with various aspects of the device. “I got
to know a lot of people, both personally and professionally, which I really enjoyed. With this kind of whole-system project,
you work with a lot of different people with various skills, and all of those skills contributed to our success,” says Brady. |
