A SINGLE CHANNEL HANDHELD OPTICAL RADAR

THE STUDY COVERS A SINGLE CHANNEL HANDHELD OPTICAL RADAR WHICH IS SMALLER THAN COMPARABLE LASER RANGEFINDERS AND YET HAS BETTER PERFORMANCE THAN THE LARGER RANGEFINDERS. THIS HANDHELD OPTICAL RADAR WOULD FEATURE ABSOLUTE RANGE RESOLUTION UNDER TWO INCHES, RANGE RATE INDICATION, A SUNLIGHT READABLE DISPLAY, REDUCED WEIGHT AND LOW POWER. THE PHASE I STUDY WILL HELP DEFINE THE PHASE II PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT AND TEST IN A FOUR-STEP PROGRAM: (1) SURVEY AND DETERMINE NASA OPERATING REQUIREMENTS AND SAFETY STANDARDS FOR A LASER RANGEFINDER SYSTEM; (2) DEFINE THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN OPTICAL PARAMETERS, MAXIMUM RANGE, RANGE RESOLUTION, SIZE, POWER AND WEIGHT; (3) DEFINE THE SUBSYSTEM BLOCK DIAGRAM BY INVESTIGATING LENS CONFIGURATIONS LASER DEVICES, RECEIVER CHARACTERISTICS AND PROCESSING ALGORITHMS; AND (4) CONDUCT A PACKAGING STUDY OF THE SUBSYSTEMS WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON HYBRID DEVICE REQUIREMENTS.