KEYWORDS: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars, Cameras, Space operations, Image resolution, Charge-coupled devices, Mirrors, Staring arrays, Aerospace engineering, Signal to noise ratio
Following its launch in August, 2005 and a year of interplanetary cruise and aero-braking, the successful Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission is currently orbiting Mars and down-linking imagery from the High Resolution
Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. The primary objectives of the MRO mission are to characterize the
present climate of Mars, look for evidence of water-related activities, and characterize potential landing sites. After only
four months in the Primary Science Phase (PSP) of the mission, MRO has returned more data than any other previous
Mars mission. Approximately one-third of this data volume is from the HiRISE camera, built by Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corporation (BATC), for the University of Arizona (UofA), Department of Planetary Sciences.
With a 0.5-meter primary mirror, the HiRISE instrument includes the largest optical telescope ever sent beyond Earth's
orbit, and is producing images with unprecedented resolution. It has detected objects of less than one meter size from
the nominal orbit of 250 x 320 km. The highest resolution images have a scale of 25 to 32 cm per pixel (1.0 microradian
IFOV). HiRISE is a "push-broom" camera with a swath width of 6 km in a broad red spectral band and 1.2 km in blue-green
and near infrared bands. There are 14 CCD detector chips (2048 x 128 TDI elements each) on the focal plane.
The HiRISE camera was designed to minimize use of spacecraft resources. Even with a half-meter primary mirror,
through the use of lightweight glass optics and graphite-composite structures the final mass of the instrument is only
64.2 kg. It maintains a nearly uniform telescope temperature of 20°C yet its orbital average power consumption is less
than 60 W.
An overview is given of the NASA MRO mission and the HiRISE instrument. Pre-launch activities are detailed and the
launch time discussed. An account is given of the cruise events, along with a description of aerobraking and the primary
science phase. A sample of science results are presented, including a wealth of imagery.
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera will be launched in August 2005 onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft. HiRISE supports the MRO Mission objectives through targeted imaging of nadir and off-nadir sites with high resolution and high signal to noise ratio [a]. The camera employs a 50 cm, f/24 all-reflective optical system and a time delay and integration (TDI) detector assembly to map the surface of Mars from an orbital altitude of ~ 300 km. The ground resolution of HiRISE will be < 1 meter with a broadband red channel that can image a 6 x 12 km region of Mars into a 20K x 40K pixel image. HiRISE will image the surface of Mars at three different color bands from 0.4 to 1.0 micrometers. In this paper the HiRISE mission and its camera optical design will be presented. Alignment and assembly techniques and test results will show that the HiRISE telescope's on-orbit wave front requirement of < 0.071 wave RMS (@633nm) will be met . The HiRISE cross track field is 1.14 degrees with IFOV 1.0 μ-radians.
The Spaceborne Infrared Atmospheric Sounder (SIRAS) represents a new approach to imaging spectrometry in the infrared by combining next generation WFOV refractive optics with high-dispersion gratings to minimize size and mass. Prototype hardware was developed and tested on this program to demonstrate that high spectral resolution could be achieved in a package of small size and mass. The performance, development and testing of the prototype spectrometer are discussed as well as potential applications for future missions. This effort was sponsored under the NASA Instrument Incubator Program (IIP).
KEYWORDS: Calibration, Lithium, Sensors, Signal processing, Monochromators, Semiconductor lasers, Signal detection, Space operations, Data acquisition, Optical sensors
The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) wide field-of-view solid-state camera can measure the global distribution of lightning from LEO, through the use of a narrowband interference filter to detect the neutral O band at 777.4 nm. Prelaunch testing and calibration of the LIS has required three separate laboratory systems; absolute radiometric calibration of the sensor will be furnished over the whole spectral range by a high resolution monochromator and motorized gimbals.
We examine the role of processing errors on diffraction efficiency of binary optical elements and the validity of the Fourier
model to predict diffraction efficiency. We show that mask alignment error can significantly degrade efficiency. Models based
on the Fourier theory can adequately predict both the magnitude of diffraction efficiency and its sensitivity to processing errors
for optically slow elements (f/b). For optically fast elements (
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.