MINIATURE ELECTRICAL POWER SOURCE TO ENHANCE SCBA SAFETY

Not Available This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I Project proposes to develop a novel and advanced laser pumped Helium Triaxial Gradiometer (HTG) for use in future Closed-Loop Degaussing Systems. Improved gradiometer performance will be achieved by the use of laser pumped helium sensors which extract triaxial vector field information from a single helium cell with high resolution and very high accuracy. The laser magnetometer has been demonstrated using a proprietary diode laser pump source developed by Polatomic for NASA. The concept of a vector helium sensor was developed under NSF SBIR sponsorship. The proposed HTG instrument concept will include laser pumped helium vector field detectors, instrument electronics, processing software for gradient component readout and a vector gradiometer sensor. The instrument electronics will be designed and fabricated in Phase I, and the readout software will be developed. A breadboard HTG instrument consisting of the HTG electronics, readout software and a dual laser sensor apparatus (developed under a NSF SBIR contract) which will be modified for dual vector sensor operation will be assembled. In Phase I the feasibility of the Helium Triaxial Gradiometer will be established by demonstrating, testing and evaluating the breadboard HTG.