Contamination control of space-based laser instruments

Abstract

Space based laser missions have gained their popularity in areas such as: communication, power beaming, ranging, altimetry, and Light Detection and Ranging. The capabilities of 1.0 micron lasers offer a host of improvements in the knowledge gaps that exist and help promote our understanding of our Earth and lunar environments as well as planetary and space science applications. Some past and present National Aeronautics and Space Administration missions that have been developed for increasing our universal knowledge of such environments and applications include: The Shuttle Laser Altimeter, Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, Geoscience Laser Altimeter System, Mercury Laser Altimeter, Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation, and Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter. The effort of contamination control depends on the specific performance goals, instrument designs, and planned operating scenarios of such missions. Trace amounts of contamination have been shown to greatly reduce the performance of 1.0 micron space based laser systems. In addition, the type of contamination plays an important role in the degree of degradation and helps to define the "contamination sensitivity" of the mission. A space based laser mission is considered highly contamination sensitive and therefore requires an unprecedented contamination control effort.