Breakthrough Technologies Enabling ESPA-Class SmallSat Implementation of Earth Science LIDAR Missions

Space-based lidars have made many key Earth science observations. They provide unique advantages of spatial, spectral and temporal resolution because they carry their own laser illumination source. Despite many highly successful missions, however, lidar instruments are not being flown regularly in Earth orbit due to their cost, size, power requirements, and risk. In this Instrument Concept Demonstration (ICD), our team proposes to develop an innovative combination of lidar technologies to help overcome these critical challenges. Our team will demonstrate key instrument capabilities to enable lower cost, more regular missions. This work targets three new technologies that address the most critical drivers of space lidar size, weight and power (SWaP). When successful these will enable SmallSat implementation of traditionally bulky, power-hungry lidar instruments. These technologies are: (1) miniaturized and efficient wavelength-tunable seed lasers using photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) gas cells; (2) compact, efficient, high peak power optical amplifiers using highly-doped, large-mode-area fiber laser technology; and (3) a lightweight deployable, membrane receiver telescope coupled with custom free-form optics aberration correction. These cutting-edge technologies address the major drivers for SWaP on a lidar mission, so combined they can enable a space lidar on a much smaller satellite that reduces cost but still meets stringent performance requirements. Although the technologies that our team will address are broadly applicable to many lidar concepts, our team will target those for GSFC's CO2 Sounder, a carbon dioxide (CO2) integrated-path differential-absorption (IPDA) lidar. The lidar measurement of CO2 serves as an important testbed for the technology. The Earth science community and NASA have long recognized the importance of laser-based spectroscopic measurements for greenhouse gases from space because it allows greater coverage and avoids several known bias errors inherent in passive measurements. Our team is uniquely positioned to do this work with years of experience developing the airborne CO2 Sounder as well as space-based, and other airborne lidars. Our team has partnerships with the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) for photonic integrated circuits and with NeXolve for membrane telescope component development. Our team has the critical expertise in understanding the science measurements, developing the component technologies, and in verifying the component performance. The proposed 18-month program will increase the technology readiness from level 2 to 3.

Increase scientific understanding of natural phenomena using remote sensing

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