Ph.D. Research | Design and Evaluation of a Fiber Optic Probe
as a means of Subsurface Planetary Exploration
Design and Evaluation of a Fiber Optic Probe as a means of Subsurface Planetary Exploration
View my publications.
Funding Source
NASA Planetary Instrumentation Definition & Development Program (PIDDP, Award#NNH06ZDA001N.)
Funding Amount
$400,000.
Principal Investigator
Dr. Rick Ulrick.
Industrial Partner
Space Photonics.
Full Abstract and Chapter 1: Statement of Problem.
Chapter 2: Suitability of Optical Fibers for Space Based Applications
Used during research.
"Home Made" Fiber Optic Probe port, Power and USB port hoked up Andromeda Chamber.
FEA of a probe housing under stress. Created in AutoCAD.
Top of Andromeda Chamber hooked up to home made optical interface.
Used for wave-front analysis of illumination profile of various optical bundle configurations.
Optical bundle wavefront, single transmit fiber. As we move the probe away the illumination profile becomes more dispersed.
Optical bundle wavefront, 6 transmit fibers around a single receiving fiber. As we move the probe away the illumination profile becomes more dispersed.
Simulation of optical waverfront programmed in MatLAB. 6 transmit around a single receiving fiber.
AutoCAD model used to help develop MatLAB numerical model of optical wavefront.
Illustration of numerical model of optical wavefront.
Illustration of overlap calculations used in MatLAB model.
Simulation of optical bundle created via MatLAB.
Used for testing
AutoCAD
Abstract (Partial)
"The Optical Probe for Regolith Analysis (OPRA) is an instrumentation concept designed to provide spectroscopic analysis of the near subsurface of unconsolidated regolith on bodies such as moons, asteroids and planets. Below a chemically altered surface may lay the geological history in the form of stratigraphy that is shielded from degradation due to harsh external environments. Most of what we know about our solar system comes from remote platforms, such as satellites that are deployed into orbit around the target body. In the case of Mars, we have had several successful landers and rovers however, with the exception of the Mars Science Laboratory that just drilled its first hole, the complexity of subsurface excavation has limited the extent of subsurface exploration to simple scoops deployed on the ends of robotic arms which, by their very nature, will erase any stratigraphy that it may be digging into...."