The
MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER)
mission was launched Aug 3, 2004, beginning a nearly 7-year journey through
the inner solar system and a yearlong study of Mercury starting in March
2011. APL designed and built the spacecraft, a NASA Discovery-class probe
which is the first mission to Mercury in more than 30 years
and will be the first spacecraft to orbit the innermost planet. MESSENGER’s
seven scientific instruments will provide the first images
of the entire planet and collect information on Mercury's crust, geology,
atmosphere, magnetosphere, core, and mysterious polar materials. APL
manages the mission for the consortium of participating organizations
that includes the Carnegie Institution of Washington; NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center; GenCorp Aerojet, Sacramento, CA; Composite Optics Inc.,
San Diego, CA; the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and the University
of Colorado, Boulder. 
APL
and the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO, lead a multi-organizational
team developing the New
Horizons mission to explore the distant planet Pluto,
its moon, Charon, and the Kuiper Belt region beyond. The mission's
Principal Investigator is from the Southwest Research Institute. APL
manages the mission
and will design, build, and operate the spacecraft. New Horizons
is scheduled to launch in January 2006, swing around Jupiter for scientific
studies
and
a gravity boost in 2007,
and reach Pluto in 2015. 
APL
successfully conducted rapid prototype demonstrations of UUV-based chemical
and biological monitoring and detection systems. An identification of
system needs and concept designs was based on derived operational requirements,
deployment platforms' characteristics, and sensor technology capabilities
for the purpose of collecting weapons of mass destruction intelligence
in a maritime environment.
Protecting
people—on the battlefield or in office buildings-- from chemical
and biological weapons requires highly specialized sensors that can effectively
identify a wide range of pathogens. The equipment has to be compact enough
to be available quickly wherever it is needed, but powerful enough to
provide accurate information on difficult-to-detect aerosolized weapons.
APL scientists are using extremely high-resolution mass spectrometry
as a powerful tool to detect and identify dangerous substances. Our time-of-flight
(TOF) mass spectrometers are effective portable "universal sensors" for
analyzing solids, liquids, or aerosols in the field rather than traditional
laboratories. One BIOTOF model can operate autonomously and continuously, representing a promising capability for protecting buildings. Another version is a small but powerful instrument that features new techniques for ion formation and energy-focusing, new sampling and ionization schemes, and new analysis techniques. The current “Suitcase TOF” device fits in a small container, and engineers are decreasing its size while increasing its versatility. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has provided support for APL’s development of these sensor systems, which have been successfully tested by DARPA and the Army’s Soldier and Biological Chemical Command. While APL continues to develop next-generation models, a set of TOF technologies has been licensed to a Matrix Instruments.
Breaking
down stovepiped systems to achieve near-real-time information dissemination
requires a massive end-to-end system engineering effort. APL and its partners
are defining a process to effectively network existing systems, doing more
and doing it differently, to improve a vital capability. APL leads a coalition
working on one of the military’s most critical challenges: harnessing
information technology to enhance warfighting capabilities. The Global
Netcentric Surveillance & Targeting program aims to make real-time
intelligence fusion a reality. The goal is to decrease the time between
fixing on and engaging a targeted threat that can move rapidly.
Looking
toward a future space satellite system deployment, APL’s First Alert
and Cueing system has demonstrated ground-based remote detection of missile
plumes and has been approved for airborne testing. The multispectral
detection system will be able to identify missile and weapons launches
from space and predict impact points to protect U.S. assets from attack.
Systems to protect allied forces and US assets from missile attacks.
FAC technology designed by APL to rapidly detect missile launches, type
the missiles and predict impact points has been successfully ground tested,
approved for aircraft testing, process to be certified for space test. 
The
Navy utilized 15 CEC units in the Iraqi theater of operations. CEC networks
sensors into a system of systems to increase combat system effectiveness
through data sharing. Conceived and developed by APL, CEC enhances a
battle group's warfighting capability by fusing tracks from a multitude
of sensors into a single, coherent picture shared by all ships and aircraft
of the group. The technology enables the distributed sensors and weapons
of all the ships and planes to function as a single, integrated anti-air-warfare
system. Recent demonstrations proved that CEC’s sensor netting and
integrated fire control capabilities can be increased via long-range
satellite networks. As CEC significantly extends the range for which
air and missile threats can be countered, more time is gained for engaging
difficult threat aircraft and cruise missiles. APL serves as the program's
Technical Direction Agent, leading the development of advanced concepts
for future sensor integration, network enhancements, weapon system employment,
and force coordination. The Royal Navy is working with APL to explore
the potential use of CEC for increased interoperability of U.S. and British
forces. 
Multiple,
diverse data sources present barriers to information access, particularly
in the critical area of infocentric warfare. Underlying data source locations,
schemas, inter-relationships, and query languages require high-level programming
skills applied to time-consuming queries. APL researchers have developed
a system that enables simplified dynamic access to unrelated data sources
through the Internet. Architecture for Distributed Information Access (ADINA)
is a research tool that facilitates seamless, rapid access to distinct,
loosely related data sources, in a user-friendly manner. Sponsored by the
Office of the Secretary of Defense and the National Geospatial-Intelligence
Agency (NGA), ADINA is being adapted and used in a multisensor fusion
system to locate elusive surface-to-air missiles and weapons of mass
destruction. ADINA’s
automated query formulation approach simplifies the task of writing queries
and accelerates the process of integrating heterogeneous data sources such
as relational databases, XML documents, object-oriented databases, and
image and signal databases. 
A
successful Preliminary Design Review has brought the STEREO spacecraft
into the development phase. APL is building the spacecraft that we designed
and will manage. In its mission to study the Sun, STEREO will use two
nearly identical observatories to provide 3-D, stereoscopic images for
scientists to study the nature of coronal mass ejections, a major source
of magnetic disruptions on Earth and a key component of space weather.
STEREO is scheduled for launch in February 2006. 
As
the Technical Direction Agent for the for both SM-3 and Aegis Ballistic Missile
Defense programs, APL continues to build on a 60-year record of critical
contributions to the Navy’s guided missile programs. The Laboratory
is providing key support to the Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy’s
series of flight tests. Engineers run hundreds of high-fidelity simulations
in our facilities to develop preflight predictions of missile performance.
APL also defines mission requirements; establishes test scenarios; conducts
debris analysis for range safety; determines optimum launch windows and provides
on-site support at the Pacific Missile Range Facility. The latest test, Flight
Mission-6 in December 2003, resulted in the fourth successful intercept for
the SM-3 and the sea-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense program. The hit-to-kill
intercept involved an SM-3 fired from the Aegis Cruiser USS Lake Erie against
a target launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility. Following each flight, APL performs a post-flight reconstruction of the mission and analyzes the flight data to update and validate six-degree-of-freedom performance simulations, and participates in any post-flight investigations associated with the tests.
The
U.S. Air Force has selected APL’s Full-Signal Translator (FST) as
the heart of its first-generation GPS-based range safety system. The product
is a
small, lightweight, low-cost device that frequency translates and downlinks
Global Positioning System signals to enable precise post-flight trajectory
reconstructions used in testing and evaluation of different flight systems.
The FST will give the Air Force a substantial increase in flight testing
flexibility and range safety. APL is producing the first several lots of
flight-qualified systems and is working with the Air Force to transition
production to industry. 
Because many biological
weapons that could be used by terrorists may cause influenza-like symptoms,
early detection of changes in behavior patterns may provide a warning
to health care facilities. A biosurveillance system developed by APL
is operating in the Washington and Baltimore metropolitan areas. The
Essence II system processes data received daily from locations such as
pharmacies, hospitals, doctors’ offices, clinics, grocery stores,
schools, veterinarians, and web sites. The Department of Defense is evaluating
the system for its potential to provide an automatic alert when an outbreak
of disease or infection occurs.