FOR NASA MISSIONS REQUIRING ACTIVE CONTROL OF SEGMENTED MIRRORS, OPTICAL TRUSSES AND BOOMS, COHERENT, LASER…

Public award description

FOR NASA MISSIONS REQUIRING ACTIVE CONTROL OF SEGMENTED MIRRORS, OPTICAL TRUSSES AND BOOMS, COHERENT, LASER-BASED APPROACHES SUCH AS CW LASER INTERFEROMETERS HAVE BEEN PREFERRED BECAUSE THEY CAN PROVIDE VERY HIGH RESOLUTION RELATIVE POSITION MEASUREMENTS. OTHER APPROACHES, SUCH AS MULTI-COLOR INTERFEROMETERS CAN PROVIDE ABSOLUTE RANGE MEASUREMENTS. HOWEVER, NEITHER TECHNIQUE CAN MEASURE MULTIPLE RETROREFLECTORS WITH A SINGLE OPTICAL TRANSCEIVER. THIS HAS LED TO COMPLEX DISTRIBUTED METROLOGY SYSTEMS, WHICH ARE LIMITED IN USEFULNESS. BRIDGER PHOTONICS INC. PROPOSES TO INVESTIGATE A NOVEL DISTRIBUTED METROLOGY APPROACH THAT IS UNIQUELY ENABLED BY ITS SLM-SERIES OF ACTIVELY STABILIZED SWEPT LASER SOURCES. THE TECHNIQUE, TERMED MULTI-POINT TRILATERATION, USES A FREQUENCY MODULATED CONTINUOUS WAVE (FMCW) CHIRPED LASER RADAR TO DETERMINE THE RANGE TO MULTIPLE REFLECTORS THAT ARE ILLUMINATED SIMULTANEOUSLY BY THREE OR MORE LARGE FIELD-OF-VIEW TRANSCEIVERS. BECAUSE BRIDGER'S LASER RADAR SYSTEM CAN UNAMBIGUOUSLY DETERMINE THE RANGE TO MULTIPLE TARGETS WITHIN THE FIELD-OF-VIEW WITH HIGH ACCURACY, TRILATERATION CAN BE UTILIZED TO ESTIMATE THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL (3D) COORDINATES FOR ALL OF THE RETROREFLECTIVE TARGETS WITHIN THE FIELD-OF-VIEW. BRIDGER PROVIDES TWO CRITICAL ADVANTAGES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS DISTRIBUTED METROLOGY SYSTEM: 1) THE WORLD'S HIGHEST RESOLUTION LASER RADAR SYSTEM, WHICH IS CRUCIAL FOR DETERMINING THE RANGE TO THE MULTIPLE RETROREFLECTORS, AND 2) PROPRIETARY PROCESSING TECHNIQUES THAT ENABLE CRAMER-RAO LOWER BOUND LIMITED RANGE ESTIMATION. UNDER THE PROPOSED WORK PLAN, BRIDGER WILL PROVIDE AN OPTIMAL DESIGN FOR TRANSCEIVER/RETROREFLECTOR GEOMETRIES AND MODEL THE EXPECTED PERFORMANCE, CONDUCT DEMONSTRATIONS VALIDATING THE SYSTEM PERFORMANCE AND PROVIDE A SPACE-QUALIFIABLE, COMPACT SYSTEM DESIGN THAT CAN BE BUILT AND DELIVERED TO NASA DURING A PHASE II EFFORT SHOULD THE APPROACH BE FEASIBLE.