Meta-Optically Steered Antenna Instrument for Cometary Sensing

Understanding how the Earth obtained its water and whether water-rich earthlike planets are common in the Universe is one of the central themes in NASA's vision. Our Solar System is the only laboratory where physical and chemical processes occurring in planet forming disks and their impact on the habitability of forming planets can be investigated in detail. Understanding the trail of volatiles to forming planets can be best studied by following their isotopic composition. An important fingerprint is the D/H isotopic ratio in water, which is strongly dependent on the formation temperature and exhibits large variations among interstellar and solar system objects. We propose to develop MOSAICS (Meta-Optically Steered Antenna Instrument for Cometary Sensing) -- a highly sensitive submillimeter-wave spectrometer to enable simultaneous observation of low-energy pure rotational lines of H216O, H218O, H217O, and HD16O to directly measure D/H, 18O/16O and 17O/16O in comets with very high-accuracy (better than 3.5% for 17O/18O). The main scientific goal is to quantify the origin of the solar system's water and its delivery to Earth. Additional molecular lines of major cometary volatiles (NH3, CH3OH, H2S, SO2, CO, HCN, etc.) are accessible. Their measurements will improve our understanding of cometary activity processes, and how these C-H-O-N-S compounds may have been delivered to the early Earth and contributed to prebiotic chemistry. To achieve those scientific objectives, two instrument capabilities are critical: (i) antenna articulation to observe both the coma and tail of the comet and (ii) high-fidelity instrument calibration to achieve high-accuracy oxygen isotopic ration in water measurements. To achieve that we will develop a low-mass (< 2 kg) and low-power (< 5 W) high-resolution tunable heterodyne spectrometer working in the 500--600 GHz band with a novel beam-scanning antenna. The spectrometer includes a heterodyne sensor that is capable of measuring, for the first time, all isotopic water lines simultaneously, thus allowing high-fidelity calibration, leading to high-precision oxygen isotopic ratio measurements. It utilizes a novel meta-optics-based beam-steering capability along with a low-profile 20-cm diameter leaky-wave lens antenna with meta-optics-based image rejection filters integrated with the feed, highly sensitive waveguide packaged room temperature Schottky-diode sensors, a low-power CMOS synthesizer and Fourier transform spectrometer, and an integrated low-loss waveguide switch and variable temperature thermal load for differential radiometric calibration. We will mature the technology to TRL 4. The high accuracy provided by MOSAICS can enable, for the first time, independent measurements of the D/H ratio in water sublimating from the nucleus and from the icy grains, through a combination of nadir and offset measurements during a comet flyby. Such information is needed, as significant mixing of bodies from different regions in the solar system likely occurred during giant planet migration. Specifically, the following will be developed under this program: (a) Miniaturized and Widely Tunable Optical Bench: Featuring a unique receiver architecture in the 500-600 GHz band and this development will advance the state-of-the-art of compact optical frontend, and enable simultaneous detections of spectrally distant lines. (b) Meta-Optics-Based Beam Scanning System: Utilizing piezo-electric based nanopositioners in front of a low-profile leaky wave feed based lens antenna architecture allowing large apertures (~20 cm) in a light-weight and low-profile package. (c) Image Rejection Filtering: Using highly innovative cascaded high-contrast gratings based selective dual-bandpass filtering for sideband rejection. (d) Integrated Low-loss Waveguide Switch and Variable Temperature Thermal Load: Facilitating differential radiometric calibration without the need of a flip mirror assembly.

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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