Spaceborne Scanning Lidar Sensor

To address NASA’s need for novel lidar technologies with an emphasis on compactness, efficiency, reliability, lifetime, and high performance, Intellisense Systems, Inc. (Intellisense) proposes to develop a new Spaceborne Scanning Lidar (SBSL) Sensor for three-dimensional (3D) mapping, suitable for deployment on unmanned aerial vehicles, SmallSats, and CubeSats, or stratospheric platforms. The innovations (1) in the sensor design using geometric phase (GP) flat lenses in an afocal telescope integrated with (2) a wide-field-of-view (WFOV) electro-optical phased array exploiting the Talbot light redistribution for 100% fill factor, and (3) a flat adaptive lens for the telescope athermalization supporting diffraction limit performance will allow the system to achieve down to <1 m space resolution from >100 km altitude, >20 deg FOV with 0.2 arcsec pointing accuracy, and <10 ms rate per sweep in the SBSL sensor. The size, weight, and power consumption (SWaP) do not exceed 1.26 cub. ft, 6 lb, and <60 W, respectively. Thus, the SBSL addresses several of the key technological gaps suffered by existing lidar sensors. In Phase I, Intellisense will develop a viable conceptual design of the SBSL sensor that satisfies NASA’s resolution and range requirements, including SWaP, FOV, pointing accuracy, and sweep rate, and demonstrate the design’s feasibility by modeling and simulation of the sensor performance under Mars landing conditions. We will also identify additional research and development work and formulate a Phase II plan including potential risks and risk mitigation strategies. In Phase II, Intellisense will optimize and refine the design and build, test, and deliver a demonstration SBSL prototype at TRL-5. The key milestone of Phase II will be testing of the prototype in a relevant environment. Preliminary designs will be made for a Phase III device.