PLANETARY SURFACES AND ATMOSPHERE CHARACTERIZATION FROM ROBOTIC PLATFORM USING REMOTE RAMAN, FLUORESCENCE, AND LIDAR INSTRUMENT

An active remote sensing instrument is developed and demonstrated at NASA Langley Research Center by combining Raman, Fluorescence Spectroscopy, and Lidar subsystems onto the robotic platform. This remote instrument is suitable for multi-platform applications on planetary surfaces and atmospheres such as those of Mars, the Moon, Asteroids, Venus, Titan, Europa and other planets for NASA SMD and ESMD missions. This instrument is based on inelastic (Raman) and elastic (Mie-Rayleigh) light scattering remote sensing. Mineralogical and surface organic information are obtained by using the instrument in the Raman-Fluorescence mode, when the laser beam points at the surface. Atmospheric aerosols and cloud distributions are obtained by operating the instrument in the lidar mode, when the laser beam points into the atmosphere. This multi-sensing instrument is highly sensitive, light-weight, and miniature active remote sensing instrument using a 4-inch telescope and miniature spectrometer. The space-qualifiable laser transmits 20 Hz laser pulses into the surface or atmosphere during experiment. The 355 nm, 532 nm, and 1064 nm laser outputs are transmitted to the targets and backscattered signals are received from the targets. The telescope collects the return signals from the atmosphere/surface and focuses them into a 0.4 mm fiber optics cable, which is connected to the receiving optics. As part of the receiving optics, a PMT is used to detect the atmospheric return signals and ICCD is used to acquire surface return signals. Raman/Fluorescence/Lidar multi-sensing Instrument including transmitter, receiver, and power conditioning/data acquisition are all integrated onto the rover system. The instrument is demonstrated on a mobile rover that is capable of performing both teleoperated and autonomous surface operations. This combined remote instrument performs Raman and Fluorescence spectroscopy out to 15 m on the surface and provides atmospheric profiling over longer ranges (~9-km).