Versatile 3D Microscopy in 100 Grams!

New classes of missions in the next decade will emphasize high-capability science with extremely limited payloads. Many of these missions are intended to democratize exploration with small but frequent launches, such as lightweight commercial lunar landers, micro-rovers, and CubeSats. Others necessitate draconian tradeoffs in order to explore extreme frontiers (e.g. Mars Helicopter). A radical new approach to in-situ science instrumentation is needed to meet these challenges. Rather than for longevity, instruments will be optimized for the greatest science capability with the least mass. The traditional paradigm of sensors relying on human-directed articulated masts and sampling arms will be replaced with static mount points on bellies and landing struts performing opportunistic automated capture. This work proposes a new type of 3D microscope based on lightfield imaging that addresses these gaps. 3D microscopy provides a view of the minuscule that enables scientists to understand geometric structure, infer material composition, and see around opaque objects. However, prior 3D designs were ill-suited to space missions, and existing instruments have only been 2D imagers. Ours is a fieldable design that is uniquely compact, lightweight, and rugged. It is meant to be used in-situ, without sample preparation, enabling rapid and detailed characterization from small robotic platforms and spacecraft. It makes up for limited views and lack of articulation by using programmable optics to provide for flexibility of focus and perspective. Recent advances in consumer mobile electronics have enabled miniaturization by attaching macro lenses to small CMOS cameras, such as that used on the JPL PUFFER micro-rover. Typical existing 3D microscopes, however, are large bench-top devices in which the mode of operation is to bring the sample back to the microscope in a lab. This bulk is largely due to the standard technique, stereo microscopy, which uses two physically distinct optical paths, providing images from two separated viewpoints. This team has designed and constructed a bench-top 3D microscope and functional reduced-scale version using a single optical path that combines lightfield imaging through a programmable LCD aperture and a hemispherical constellation of LEDs to control illumination. Initial data validating its performance has also been collected demonstrating resolution of 1μm. The reduced-scale version is a miniaturized variant of less than 50cm3 volume and 150g mass that we believe could readily be reduced to 100g in a similar volume after optimization. Power consumption, which is rated at 3W peak and much lower if duty cycled, is likewise an improvement on existing microscopes requiring mechanical actuation. To date, no one has done lightfield imaging and gonioreflectometry in the same microscope, nor has 3D been shown in a device of this size. This combination of techniques allows increased accuracy in depth reconstruction and surface orientations to capture nuances of material geometry, such as in crystalline or translucent samples. It also readily allows extension to fluorescence microscopy applications in biology by selecting LED illumination wavelengths.

State of the art microscopes on robotic missions (e.g. MAHLI) are optically little more than hardened magnifying glasses (30um). They will never fit on proposed micro-explorers and have low capability without an articulated arm. Terrestrially, the power of light-field imaging (and microscopy) has been demonstrated by researchers in silicon valley. Our instrument combines the concepts of light-field imaging with gonioreflectometry in situ developed by Co-I Wong. This combination allows programmable 3D capture in a variety of environmental conditions without need for sample handling.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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