Space Missions

U.S. Air Force XSS-11

Flight Hardware: Rendezvous Lidar Sensor (RLS) (and use XSS-11 graphic) The RLS platform is an integrated system that allows centralized data, power and thermal management, while minimizing mass, power and volume.

Optech's RLS design met USAF mission requirements in support of a 1-year spacecraft autonomous rendezvous technology demonstration mission. The design is based on a terrestrial scanning lidar, adapted to meet similar performance requirements in a LEO/MEO space environment. Launched aboard a Minotaur rocket in April 2005, the RLS system operated flawlessly and provided engineers with valuable data. Optech's time-of-flight technology was a core element of the sensor design and mission.

Primary functions:

• Seek and track missions

• Providing range, bearing and rates data

• Short-range imaging and docking missions

 

NASA Phoenix Mars Lander 2007

Flight Hardware: Meteorological Station Lidar Sensor (MET) In 2003 NASA selected Phoenix as the first mission of the Mars Scout program. Launched in 2007, Phoenix landed in the northern Vastitas Borealis region in May 2008. Optech's MET lidar data later gathered the data that proved the existence of water in the Mars atmosphere.

Optech's lidar was part of Canada's contribution to Phoenix, the Meteorological (MET) package. The MET lidar measured the location and extent of clouds, and the distribution of scatterers in the atmosphere. MET provided Canadian scientists with a unique opportunity to study the Martian atmosphere and enhance our understanding of the planet.

The Phoenix mission objectives were successful:

• Assess the astrobiological potential at high latitudes on Mars

• Verify the evidence of subsurface water ice detected by the gamma ray spectrometer aboard the Mars Odyssey orbiter

• Verify the evidence of subsurface water ice detected by the gamma ray spectrometer aboard the Mars Odyssey orbiter

• Investigate the mineralogy and geochemistry of the soil.