Field Testing of Lunar Access and Navigation Device (LAND)

Author

Liebe, Carl Christian ; Alexander, James ; Aung, MiMi ; Goldberg, Hannah ; Johnson, Andrew ; Lam, Raymond ; Maize, Earl ; Meras, Patrick ; Montgomery, James ; Palacios, Peter ; Spiers, Gary ; Wilson, Michael

Author_Institution

California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena

fYear

2007

fDate

3-10 March 2007

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

12

Abstract

A laser radar system has been constructed. It is based on a commercial PC with digitizer, pulse delay instrument, National Instruments IO card and an optical head from a previous laser radar program. The laser radar was mounted on a gyro stabilized gimbal on the nose of a helicopter and flown in the Mojave Desert in September 2006. The collected data will be used to test algorithms for future precision lunar landers, which may be utilizing a laser radar as the primary landing sensor. This paper will describe the laser radar and PC based acquisition system used for the data collection, and provide an overview of the supporting test sensors and architecture. Preliminary data collected during the helicopter field testing will also be presented.

Keywords

astronomical techniques; optical radar; National Instruments IO card; gyrostabilized gimbal; helicopter field testing; laser radar system; lunar access and navigation device; lunar landers; optical head; primary landing sensor; pulse delay instrument; Delay; Helicopters; Instruments; Laser radar; Laser stability; Moon; Navigation; Optical pulses; Optical sensors; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference, 2007 IEEE

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

ISSN

1095-323X

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0524-6

Electronic_ISBN

1095-323X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2007.353018

Filename

4161437