Projects

• Lidar and Directed Energy Components
  • 2-micron Laser
  • Roof Periscope
  • AEROTEL Chopper Wheel
  • AROTEL Receiver for the SOLVE Mission
  • Fiber Optic Couplers
  • Raman Lidar Chimney
  • Telescope Assemblies
  • 400mm aperture elevation-over-azimuth scanner
  • Large aperture mirror mounts
    • SOR
    • ABLTB
  • Lidar-In-A-Box
  • Titanium-Sapphire Laser
  • Single Point Diamond Turning
• Complete Lidar/Active Instruments
  • Raman Airborne Spectroscopic Lidar (RASL)
  • LVIS
  • Micro-Pulse Lidar
  • THOR Lidar
  • Phasers - Prototype Holographic Atmospheric Scanner for Environmental Remote Sensing
  • HARLIE (Holographic Airborne Rotating Lidar Instrument Experiment) Hemisphere Scanning Stage
  • High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL)
  • GOLD
  • 2-micron CO2 Lidar
  • DAWN AIR1
• Support Equipment
  • ESTAR Calibration Scanner
  • Cloud Physics Lidar Handling Cart
• Aircraft Installations
  • ER-2 Doppler Radar Data System Enclosure
  • Cloud Radar System Data System Enclosure
  • King Air Rear Cargo Area Riser plate and electronics racks
  • King Air 4-bay electronics rack with shock isolation
  • RSP Instrument installation in King Air
  • HSRL instrument installation
  • 400mm aperture window port for King Air HSRL-247-X
  • Raman Airborne Spectroscopic Lidar (RASL)
  • RASL segmented window and external heat exchanger
  • LVIS installation in King Air
  • MASTER installation in King Air
  • HiWRAP in WB-57
• Complete Passive Optical Instruments
  • Offner Spectrometers (grating based)
  • Refractive Spectrometers
  • Lens assemblies
  • Telescope Assemblies
    • Conventional telescopes with glass optics
      • 150mm, 400mm CN, 400mm Newt, 200mm athermal for MPL
    • SPDT telescope
• RF Instruments
  • UAV Radar
  • HiWRAP
  • ER-2 Doppler Radar Data System Enclosure
  • Cloud Radar System Data System Enclosure
• Single Point Diamond Turning
  • Large Diameter Scanner
  • Lidar-In-A-Box
  • Diamond Turned Telescope Assemblies
    • 400mm series 1
    • 400mm series 2
    • 200mm
    • 150mm
    • 100mm
• Space-based Instruments
  • Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS)
    • Laser Pickoff System
    • Stellar Reference System - Bench Checkout Equipment
    • Fiber Optic Splitter
    • Light Emitting Diode Coupler
  • ISIR-AL
  • Simplesat Optical Microsatellite
  • HICO Spectrometers

LED Coupler

Time Period

Mid 1999 to Early 2000

Project Description

A Light Emitting Diode (LED) coupler is used as a light source for calibration while in orbit. It needed to be coupled into a fiber optic cable. The system needed to be small so that it could easily fit into the existing GLAS electronics box design.

A standard LED was optically coupled through a focusing lens into a fiber optic cable. Only the focus adjustment was needed, and this was not even used since the LED sprays out so much light.

The system was assembled and aligned then thermal tested to -43.6F (-42C) to 114.8F (46C) survival and random vibration tested to 14.1GRMS. It survived and is now integrated into the GLAS electronics box.

Challenges and Lessons Learned

The main challenge on this project was schedule. The basic design was completed in approximately one day.