Photonic Component Qualification and Implementation Activities at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

The photonics group in Code 562 at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center supports a variety of space flight programs at NASA including the: International Space Station (ISS), Shuttle Return to Flight Mission, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), Express Logistics Carrier, and the NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging Program (NEPP). Through research, development, and testing of the photonic systems to support these missions much information has been gathered on practical implementations for space environments. Presented here are the highlights and lessons learned as a result of striving to satisfy the project requirements for high performance and reliable commercial optical fiber components for space flight systems. The approach of how to qualify optical fiber components for harsh environmental conditions, the physics of failure and development lessons learned will be discussed

ATLAS Beam Steering Mechanism (BSM) Lessons Learned

This paper describes the design, testing, and lessons learned during the development of the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) Beam Steering Mechanism (BSM). The BSM is a 2 degree-of-freedom tip-tilt mechanism for the purpose of pointing a flat mirror to tightly control the co-alignment of the transmitted laser and the receiver telescope of the ATLAS instrument. The high resolution needs of the mission resulted in sub-arcsecond pointing and knowledge requirements, which have been met. Development of the methodology to verify performance required significant effort. The BSM will fly as part of the Ice, Cloud, and Elevation Satellite II Mission (ICESat II), which is scheduled to be launched in 2017. The ICESat II primary mission is to map the Earth's surface topography for the determination of seasonal changes of ice sheet thickness and vegetation canopy thickness to establish long-term trends

Beam Steering Mechanism (BSM) Lessons Learned

This paper describes the design, testing, and lessons learned during the development of the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) Beam Steering Mechanism (BSM). The BSM is a 2 degree-of-freedom tip-tilt mechanism for the purpose of pointing a flat mirror to tightly control the co-alignment of the transmitted laser and the receiver telescope of the ATLAS instrument. High resolution needs of the mission resulted in sub-arcsecond pointing and knowledge requirements, which have been met. Development of methodology to verify performance was a significant effortadvancement. The BSM will fly as part of the Ice, Cloud, and Elevation Satellite 2 Mission (ICESat 2), which is scheduled to be launched in 2017. The ICESat 2 primary mission is to map the earths surface topography for the determination of seasonal changes of ice sheet thickness as well as vegetation canopy thickness

Space flight qualification on a novel five-fiber array assembly for the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) at NASA Goddard Space

A novel multi-mode 5-fiber array assembly was developed, manufactured, characterized and then qualified for the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA). LOLA is a science data gathering instrument used for lunar topographical mapping located aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission. This LRO mission is scheduled for launch sometime in late 2008. The fiber portion of the array assembly was comprised of step index 200/220µm multi-mode optical fiber with a numerical aperture of 0.22. Construction consisted of five fibers inside of a single polarization maintaining (PM) Diamond AVIM connector. The PM construction allows for a unique capability allowing the array side to be “clocked” to a desired angle of degree. The array side “fans-out ” to five individual standard Diamond AVIM connectors. In turn, each of the individual standard AVIM connectors is then connected to five separate detectors. The qualification test plan was designed to best replicate the aging process during launch and long term space flight environmental exposure. The characterization data presented here includes results from: vibration testing, thermal performance characterization, and radiation testing