NASA Tech Briefs Insider Blog

NASA Spacecraft Zaps Venus with a Laser

On June 5, NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft flew past Venus just 338 km above the planet’s surface and shot a laser into the clouds. Although MESSENGER is on a mission to Mercury, the spacecraft must pass by Venus for a gravity assist en route. In passing, researchers hope to learn a few things about the planet with sulfuric acid clouds, a choking carbon dioxide atmosphere, and a surface hot enough to melt lead.

“We are treating the Venus flyby as a full dress rehearsal for the first flyby of Mercury in January 2008,” said Sean Solomon, the mission’s principal investigator at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. “All of the spacecraft’s science instruments will be turned on during the flyby.”

The experiment aims to measure the location of Venus’ cloud decks. The Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) was designed to map the rocky topography of Mercury, but MLA turns out to have some nice properties for the study of Venus. In addition to the laser, MESSENGER will scrutinize Venus using high-resolution cameras, a suite of spectrometers ranging in wavelength from infrared to gamma rays, an energetic particle counter, and a magnetometer.

For more information about the MESSENGER mission, including a photo gallery and movies, click here.

Laser-Based Device Offers Alternative to Video Surveillance

The Laser-Based Item Monitoring System (LBIMS), developed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, balances the need for high-resolution monitoring and personal safety with confidentiality and personal privacy. Using low-cost reflective tags placed on objects, LBIMS maps the precise location of high-value items. The laser can scan many points per second and can detect small changes — less than a centimeter — in the reflected signal, meaning tampering can be detected immediately.

The precision of the system is made possible by a high-resolution, two-axis laser scanner capable of looking at a 60-degree field of view in 0.0005-degree increments, dividing the field of view into more than 10 billion individual pointing locations. A camera with comparable resolution over the same field of view would require a 10,000-megapixel detector.

Existing light detection and ranging (lidar) systems, which use scattered light, are optimized for detecting human-sized objects. Another competing technology is bar codes and radio frequency identification. In addition to being susceptible to jamming, the bar code reader or RFID antenna must be within a few centimeters of the tagged object.

Click here for more information.

Motion Control Technology™, a bi-monthly supplement to NASA Tech Briefs, contains a section called Applications, which reports on motion control components being used in the field. Here’s an Insider sneak peek at one of the technologies covered in the upcoming June issue:

Scales Work as Part of Thermonuclear Ignition Target Assembly
The National Ignition Facility (NIF), part of Lawrence Livermore National Lab (Livermore, CA), constructed a system of lasers ending in a chamber ten meters in diameter to house tiny fuel capsules that are subjected to a high-energy pulse, setting off a small thermonuclear burst. The target assembly machine, built by ABTech (Swanzey, NH), used linear scales from HEIDENHAIN Corp. (Schaumburg, IL).

With an accuracy of up to 4 millionths of an inch, the 5-axis assembly station is an air-bearing machine that includes mechanical arms with the ability to slide into position without friction. The system is capable of positioning the target shell halves in locations within 0.1 µm. The scales are exposed linear encoders capable of small, precise measured steps to 0.005 µm. The system is completed with a high-resolution camera and surgical microscope that provide views of the mating components.

The new target design has allowed NIF to create thermonuclear ignitions mimicking conditions found in the Sun or an exploding nuclear event. The primary mission of NIF will be to attain fusion ignition in the laboratory, exploring fusion’s potential as a clean, long-term energy source.

Look for this application in the June issue of Motion Control Technology.

Click here to view previously published Applications

Click here to learn more about HEIDENHAIN

Laser Pattern Generator with Submicron Precision

This device is available for use in a wide range of applications including advanced printing systems, patterning photoresist during IC manufacture, and creating masks or reticles for projection-type photolithography systems.
More information here.

The Technology Business Briefs portray licensing or selling opportunities intermediated by NextTechs.

NextTechs Technologies, LLC is a Global Technology Investment Bank engaged in technology offers and needs intermediation in over 41 industries and 141 research disciplines. Search NextTechs’ Technology Portfolio here.

As noted in the article “Mini CW Lasers Enable Next-Generation Bioinstrumentation” in May’s edition of Photonics Tech Briefs (PTB), continuous-wave (CW) lasers have helped advance research in fields such as cell sorting and DNA sequencing. Written by Jurgen Niederhofer, product manager of Newport’s Spectra-Physics Lasers Division (Stahnsdorf, Germany), the article highlights low-cost, small-form-factor diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) and direct-diode (DD) lasers that answer many of the most common bioinstrumentation applications.

Laser providers are already focused on expanding wavelength offerings, turnkey fiber- coupled solutions, and footprint size. Advances in DPSS and DD will support research in hematology and flow cytometry, among other fields.

See page IIa of the May issue of PTB for the full article. Visit
Newport’s Spectra-Physics Lasers Division here.