MSMP and BAMM were commissioned by the Air Force Space Division (AFSD) in the late seventies to generate data in support of the Advanced Warning System (AWS), a development activity to replace the space-based surveillance satellites of the Defense Support Program (DSP). These programs were carried out by the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory with planning and mentoring by Irving Spiro of The Aerospace Corporation, acting on behalf of the program managers, 1st Lt. Todd Frantz, 1st Lt. Gordon Frantom, and 1st Lt. Ken Hasegawa of the technology program office at AFSD. The motivation of MSMP was the need for characterizing the exhaust plumes of the thrusters aboard post-boost vehicles, a primary target for the infrared sensors of the proposed AWS system. To that end, the experiments consisted of a series of Aries rocket launches from White Sands Missile Range in which dual payloads were carried aloft and separately deployed at altitudes above 100 km. One module contained an ensemble of sensors spanning the spectrum from the vacuum ultraviolet to the long wave infrared, all slaved to an rf tracker locked onto a beacon on the target module. The target was a small pressure-fed liquid-propellant rocket engine, a modified Atlas vernier, programmed for a series of maneuvers in the vicinity of the instrument module. As part of this program, diagnostic measurements of the target engine exhaust were made at Rocketdyne, and shock tube experiments on excitation processes were carried out by staff members of Calspan. The motivation for BAMM was to collect relevant background data in candidate spectral bands using a staring mosaic sensor carried aloft in a high altitude balloon in a footprint comparable to that projected for the operational sensors. These programs were remarkably productive; three MSMP flights were comp feted, acquiring data at all wavelengths, a considerable database was accumulated in several BAMM missions, and the supporting ground and laboratory tests were likewise successful. This report, detailing the experiments and summarizing the results, was written as a tribute to Irv.
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