DEVELOPMENT OF AN ADVANCED 3D FLASH LIDAR ROIC 1.0 INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND: THE ALHAT PROJECT HAS BEEN ESTA…

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DEVELOPMENT OF AN ADVANCED 3D FLASH LIDAR ROIC 1.0 INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND: THE ALHAT PROJECT HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED TO PROVIDE AN AUTONOMOUS LUNAR LANDING SYSTEM FOR CREWED, CARGO, AND ROBOTIC LUNAR DESCENT VEHICLES. THE ALHAT SYSTEM WILL ENABLE GLOBAL LUNAR ACCESS FOR EXPLORATION OF AREAS ON THE LUNAR SURFACE NEVER BEFORE VISITED, WITHOUT REGARD TO LIGHTING CONDITIONS. THE ALHAT SYSTEM WILL BE CAPABLE OF LANDING A LUNAR DESCENT VEHICLE WITHIN REQUIRED PRECISION AND ACCURACY OF A PRE-DESCENT DESIGNATED LANDING LOCATION. THIS INTEGRATED SYSTEM INCLUDES DEDICATED LANDING SENSORS, COMPUTATIONAL ALGORITHMS, AND AN INTERFACE TO A LANDING VEHICLE COMMAND AND DATA HANDLING SYSTEM THAT ULTIMATELY WILL BE IN CONTROL OF THE LANDING VEHICLE. THE SCOPE OF THE ALHAT PROJECT INCLUDES THE DEFINITION, DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT, TEST, VERIFICATION, AND VALIDATION (V&V) OF AN INTEGRATED GUIDANCE, NAVIGATION AND CONTROL (GNC) LUNAR DESCENT AND LANDING SYSTEM CONSISTENT WITH TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVEL (TRL) 6. THE ALHAT SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO BE APPLICABLE TO A VARIETY OF VEHICLE TYPES, BOTH CREWED AND NON-CREWED. THE AUTONOMOUS LANDING SCENARIOS DRIVE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR LANDING SENSOR ACCURACY AND RELIABILITY (SAFE AND PRECISE). THE CREWED SCENARIOS DRIVE THE NEED TO PROVIDE INFORMATION AT VIDEO RATES (1 30 HZ) FOR USE SIMILAR TO A HEADS UP DISPLAY TO ALLOW CREW INTERFACE AND TO FACILITATE PROVISIONS FOR MANUALLY CONTROLLED LANDINGS. BOTH SCENARIOS COULD BE ACHIEVED USING A SINGLE INTEGRATED SENSOR SYSTEM, BUT FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF CERTAIN KEY TECHNOLOGIES IS NEEDED FOR MEETING THE ALHAT OBJECTIVES. TO MEET THE SAFE AND PRECISE LANDING REQUIREMENTS, THE ALHAT SYSTEM WILL MAKE USE OF THE 3-D IMAGING SENSOR DATA TO DETECT AND AVOID POTENTIAL LANDING HAZARDS DURING THE FINAL STAGES OF THE POWERED DESCENT FOR LUNAR LANDING. THE ALHAT SYSTEM LANDING SENSOR AND ASSOCIATED ALGORITHMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF DETECTING AND LOCATING LANDING HAZARDS SUCH AS ROCKS, CRATERS, SLOPES OR OTHER DISCONTINUOUS SURFACE FEATURES. THIS ABILITY TO DETECT AND LOCATE HAZARDS WILL ENABLE THE POTENTIAL FOR TRAJECTORY RETARGETING AND MANEUVERING TO A SAFE LANDING SITE. THE SIMULTANEOUS ACQUISITION AND LOCATION DETERMINATION OF HAZARDS AND CONVERSELY, ACQUISITION AND LOCATION DETERMINATION OF SAFE LANDING SITES, ALONG WITH THE RELATIVE POSITION INFORMATION INHERENT IN THE 3-D IMAGE, WILL ENABLE THE PRECISION NAVIGATION NECESSARY BOTH TO AVOID HAZARDS AND LAND PRECISELY AT THE RETARGETED LOCATION. NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (NRA) NNL08ZD2001N ENTITLED LANDING SENSOR ADVANCED COMPONENT TECHNOLOGIES SOLICITED PARTNERS TO RESEARCH, DEVELOP, AND DEMONSTRATE COMPONENT- AND SUBSYSTEM-LEVEL TECHNOLOGIES SPECIFICALLY RELATED TO ALHAT THAT WILL INCREASE PERFORMANCE, REDUCE RISK, COST, SIZE, AND MASS OF A STATE OF THE ART SENSOR CAPABLE OF ENABLING A DESCENT VEHICLE TO AUTONOMOUSLY PERFORM A SAFE AND ACCURATE LANDING. THE BASIC TECHNOLOGY CHOSEN FOR THIS SENSOR IS FLASH LIDAR. FLASH LIDAR PROVIDES A 3-D IMAGING CAPABILITY WHICH CAN BE EXPLOITED TO GENERATE THE NECESSARY INFORMATION FOR ACCURATE NAVIGATION BY IMPLEMENTATION OF APPROPRIATE REAL TIME SIGNAL AND/OR IMAGE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES. THE GOAL IS TO ADVANCE THE CORE SENSOR COMPONENT TECHNOLOGIES TO A TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVEL THAT ENABLES THEIR EVENTUAL INFUSION INTO FUTURE SPACE FLIGHT MISSIONS. THE SOLICITED COMPONENT AND SUBSYSTEM-LEVEL TECHNOLOGY AREAS SOLICITED BY THE NRA FOR FURTHER ADVANCEMENT WERE AS FOLLOWS:  DETECTOR FOCAL PLANE ARRAYS  READ OUT INTEGRATED CIRCUITS (ROIC)  3-D IMAGE PRE-PROCESSING AND ENHANCEMENT  VARIABLE FOCAL LENGTH OPTICS  IMPROVED LASER PERFORMANCE FOR FLASH LIDAR APPLICATIONS THIS REQUIREMENT IS IN RESPONSE TO THE TECHNOLOGY TOPIC AREA OF READ OUT INTEGRATED CIRCUITS (ROIC) . 2.0 SCOPE OF WORK: THE READOUT INTEGRATED CIRCUIT (ROIC) IS THE MOST CRITICAL COMPONENT OF THE FLASH LIDAR AND ANY IMPROVEMENT IN ITS PERFORMANCE D