Mr. Alexander Cain Profile

Alexander Cain

at Exciting Technology, LLC

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Proceedings Article | 5 June 2024 Presentation + Paper

Development of a beam steering device for LiDAR-based spacecraft hazard avoidance and landing missions

Anna Gnacek, Paul McManamon, Eddie Ruff, Alexander Cain, Farzin Amzajerdian

Proceedings Volume 13049, 130490N (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3022637

KEYWORDS: Beam steering, LIDAR, Prisms, Optical components, Lenses, Space operations

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Exciting Technology developed an optical beam steering device for NASA Langley Research Center’s multifunctional flash LiDAR for lunar landing missions that would benefit from a low C-SWaP, highly-capable beam steering technology. The beam steering technology can also be applied to their Navigation Doppler LiDAR (NDL) system in the future. These LiDAR sensors provide high-resolution surface elevation maps and precise relative proximity, velocity, and orientation data during vehicle descent,¹ requiring fast, wide beam steering with maintained optical quality and performance. Existing optical beam steering technology for large apertures and wide angles is restricted to classic gimbals, which are expensive and bulky with slow slew rates, or Risley prisms, which are heavy with low optical quality. Non-mechanical solutions currently are either not mature or too expensive to fabricate for larger transmissive apertures.² Exciting Technology has built a mechanical beam steering device to demonstrate its beam steering technology that can be integrated into an existing LiDAR system to magnify and steer a 50mm beam to ±6° angle. The demonstration unit uses commercially available motors and stages to highlight the optical capability, and has a path to optimize the C-SWaP and to ruggedize for space application without bulky hardware. The developed beam steerer will correct for vehicle attitude changes during Hazard Detection and Avoidance (HDA) phase to point the LiDAR at the designated landing site. The beam steerer can be configured for nadir pointing during LiDAR altimetry and Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) phases.

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