KEYWORDS: Fiber lasers, Satellites, Humidity, Commercial off the shelf technology, Fiber Bragg gratings, Space operations, Radiation effects, Particles, Fiber optic components, Control systems
There are many applications where fibers are employed in space, such as fiber gyros and fiber sensors. Fiber lasers are
becoming increasingly attractive for space for similar reasons, which are lightweight, small size and low power
consumption. The majority of components used in such systems are commercial off-the-shelf parts that have been
developed using technologies similar to those used in the development of parts for the fiber telecom market. Space
however has environmental conditions that require further hardening of these parts. Accordingly, a generic qualification protocol is suggested for qualifying generic parts for space flight. This protocol is based on merging the qualification
requirements for telecom, such as those by Telcordia, with the qualification for spaceflight, such as by NASA. A set of
components (at 1064 nm) is chosen for testing the protocol. These include doped fibers, combiners, sources, pumps,
isolators and fiber Bragg gratings. The scope of the vibration, thermal and radiation tests used to validate the protocol is
limited to the environmental conditions of lower Earth orbit satellites, 100 to 1000km orbital altitude and up to 60
degrees inclination. Also presented in this paper is a summary of a thorough survey conducted for publications related
to space qualification of fibers and lasers for space.
In this paper we examine the various components that conceivably may be used in fiber lasers, together with a suggested
Taxonomy for testing these classes of parts. These classes include passives, actives and active modules. Test protocol is
suggested for qualification based on current methodologies employed in the fiber optic communications industry, but
adapted to space conditions. These modifications include the additional environmental conditions imposed by space, namely thermal, vibration and radiation. Additionally, this test protocol is verified by executing a series of vibration,
thermal (including vacuum) and radiation tests to examine its validity. A selected set of recently-developed commercial
off-the-shelf fiber optic components (at 106x nm) are chosen for these tests. These include doped fibers, combiners,
sources, pumps, isolators and fiber Bragg gratings. The scope for this work is limited to the environmental conditions of
lower Earth orbit satellites, 100 to 1000km orbital altitude and up to 60 degrees inclination.
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