High Temperature Superconductor Resonator Detectors, Year 1

This work is a design study of an instrument optimized for JPL's novel high temperature superconductor bolometers. The work involves designing an imaging spectrometer that spans the infrared and offers capabilities in imaging and spectroscopy that are unprecedented for planetary science. The sensitivity and the use of passive cooling in the proposed far IR hyperspectral imager make this instrument a strong candidate for several missions to the outer Solar system proposed in the Planetary Science Decadal Survey: the Comet Surface Sample Return, the Trojan Tour and Rendezvous, the Saturn Probe, and the Uranus Orbiter and Probe. Furthermore, looking beyond this decade, the survey reads: "it is important to make significant near-term technology investments in the […] Titan Saturn System Mission, and Neptune System Orbiter and Probe." The high sensitivity of our instrument would allow resolving narrow and weak spectral features, acquiring spectra in short time windows (such as during brief flybys), and imaging fast dynamic processes (such as moving clouds or storms or during rapid flybys). When applied to observe storms in the atmospheres of the giant planets, our team expects our far IR hyperspectral imager to be able to acquire broadband images of storms in minutes, resolving chemical species at different depths to provide information about composition and depth with unprecedented detail. The proposed instrument may also be applied to measure thermophysical properties of icy moons (such as Europa and Enceladus), asteroids, and comets. Applications include measuring temperature and thermal inertia to study geology and surface evolution while also performing spectroscopy to study composition of the surface of these objects and their thin atmospheres. Additionally, the ring particles of the giant planets are of interest. Thermal inertia measurements probe the ring dynamics. Spectroscopy using emission, solar reflectance, and stellar occultation measurements of ring particles probe composition.

To NASA unfunded & planned missions:

Instruments that perform imaging, spectroscopy, and radiometry in the near to far infrared have been central to past and future missions to the outer solar system. However, past instruments have inefficiently used the available signal collected by the optics due to limitations of the deployed detectors. The proposed YBCO KIBs offer broadband response, large active area, imaging capability, and hyperspectral resolution, which allow for more efficient use of collected radiation. Greater efficiencies also allow instruments to have smaller aperture sizes and less mass. A focal plane tiled with thousands of sensitive broadband YBCO KIBs would provide numerous new capabilities and improvements over existing instruments: 1. Fast imaging of dynamic phenomena such as storms in the atmospheres the outer planets obtainable in minutes 2. High spatial resolution imaging with hyperspectral resolution 3. Identification and mapping of chemical species 4. Piercing though narrow spectral windows, such as through atmospheric transparency windows of Titan 5. Far IR imaging deep into thick atmospheres (of planets such as Uranus or Saturn) in which near IR is obscured by hydrogen, methane, ammonia or other compounds 6. Obtaining near and far IR images exactly aligned, unlike in CIRS data witch different bands are detected on different parts of the focal plane 7. More efficient use of broadband signal 8. Simultaneous optical and infrared imaging form the same focal plane detector 9. Reducing the aperture size to reduce the mass of the optics

To other government agencies:
YBCO detector technology could be developed to passively scan people and items at airports in far IR and THz bands to identify threats, or scan the ground in various wavelengths for environmental or commercial applications.
To the commercial space industry:

The YBCO technology, though currently being developed for the outer solar system , could be redesigned to passively scan in for various applications to provide remote sensing in the IR for terrestrial applications.
To the nation:
YBCO detector technology could be developed to passively scan people and items at airports in far IR and THz bands to identify threats, or scan the ground in various wavelength for environmental or commercial applications.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 2) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.