Swath-Mapping Lidar for Lunar Science and Exploration

We propose to mature a lidar capable of acquiring large continuous topographic swaths of the Moon at sub-meter resolution. This capability will propel our understanding of broad, key lunar science questions resulting from recent missions, from the recent history of tectonics, volcanism, and impacts, to the fine-scale distribution and properties of cold-trapped polar volatiles. Such contiguous elevation data enable mapping meter-scale morphological heterogeneities in cold traps, elucidating the thermal environment at smaller scales than currently possible. The lidar will map surface normal albedo and infer exposed ice areal cover at meter scale over the whole polar caps. These high-resolution topographic data will be invaluable to Artemis, for traverse planning and assessing illumination and hazard conditions. We leverage recent photonics and detector developments to achieve spatial measurement frequencies 10,000 times greater than past altimeters such as LRO's LOLA. This approach was demonstrated at 1550nm under GSFC IRAD. Ongoing ESTO IIP and ACT projects are developing critical subsystems for Earth orbit applications, such as a high-peak-power laser amplifier. But the less-stringent requirements from lunar orbit (50-km range; lower ground speed) mean components with sufficient capabilities are already available at the relevant TRL for the Moon. This DALI effort is a unique opportunity to mature a transformative swath-mapping lidar. Our lidar's measurement approach novelty is its fast non-mechanical cross-track beam-steering, by rapid tuning the wavelength of the laser between 1025 and 1045nm and using diffractive gratings to scan the laser beam with no moving part. More than 200 contiguous footprint positions (compared to 5 static positions for LOLA) can be sampled serially and imaged onto a photon-sensitive linear detector array. A unique advantage of this technique is the fast-scanning rate, <0.3 ms for each footprint row, while reducing laser speckle noise and achieving high ranging precision. This approach is unique as it enables complete 3D mapping of the lunar surface, with full pulse waveform recording and no gap between laser footprints, which has not been the case for any space lidar to date. With only a few watts of laser power and a small receiver telescope, <10 cm range precision for each footprint can be achieved. High power efficiency is enabled by the nearly noiseless arrayed HgCdTe avalanche photodiode detector (APD) and an efficient ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier. The data volume can be accommodated by radio telemetry, and it is much smaller than what image-based stereo reconstruction would require for the same surface area, while providing higher vertical accuracy, geodetic control, and sampling consistency via uniform illumination (e.g., unaffected by shadows). In this 3-year DALI project, we will build a prototype instrument and perform system functional and environmental tests. We leverage an existing 2x8 pixel arrayed HgCdTe APD detector system, and perform environmental testing on the seed laser and laser amplifier. We will then mature the instrument from TRL 4 to 6. Our team has experience in lunar science and altimetry and expertise from multiple instrument development and maturation projects and through ongoing efforts on related technology for Earth science applications. The proposed lidar is directly relevant to the DALI program as it addresses specific lunar scientific objectives established by the recent Planetary Science Decadal Survey, the NASA Science Plan, and community documents such as the LEAG Lunar Exploration Roadmap. It also supports mission planning and exploration objectives of the Artemis program. It provides a generational leap in measurement capabilities for lidar and for rapid high-resolution surface characterization. By the end of the DALI maturation effort, flight hardware could be quickly built for near-term flight opportunities, such as Discovery, CLPS/PRISM, and Artemis.

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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