Lunar Lidar Technology for Artemis Human Habitation

This SBIR will develop an in situ Lunar lidar for the Artemis missions that can be incorporated into a rover, astronaut-mounted backpack, NASArsquo;s Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) or other vehicles for planetary exploration within the solar system. The lidar developed in this SBIR will enable NASA to quantitatively map Lunar terrain with unprecedented, cm-scale, spatial resolution as well as provide real-time quantitative position and navigation information on the Lunar surface. This information is multi-use, serving both daily needs for Lunar habitation as well as scientific needs such as mapping challenging permanently shadowed regions (PSRs).nbsp;The current state-of-the-art for in situ Lunar and planetary mapping and navigation are passive stereo vision cameras such as the Navcams on the Perseverance Mars Rover. Such technology cannot inherently provide quantitative 3D mapping or image into dark/shadowed regions. The proposed lidar will create novel in situ mapping and navigation capabilities.nbsp;The in situ lidar to be developed under this SBIR will be robust to the extreme lunar environment and therefore have additional NASA applications for exploration of other planets, such as Mars, and the larger moons in the solar system. In situ lidar can provide a wealth of otherwise inaccessible terrain mapping data that can address NASArsquo;s science objectives that cannot be achieved with passive optical instruments.nbsp;In situ lidar can provide high-resolution information for:Terrain mapping at cmscalesTarget ranging at gt;100 mRealtime position and navigation information in GPS-denied environmentsRealtime obstacle detection and hazard avoidanceActive imaging to probe dark regions, such as Lunar PSRs