LPI Technical Report 93-02 11 This presentation will detail an application of these black surfaces dominates or is as universally suitable for all applications. Thus, we to the Clementine star-tracker navigational system, which will be address several technological problems, recent advances, and the launched in early 1994 to examine the Moon, en route to intercept impact that these new enabling technologies represent for UV an asteroid. Rugged black surfaces with Lambertian BRDF <10-2 applications. srad-' are critical for suppressing stray light in the star-tracker optical train. Previously available materials spall under launch vibrations to contaminate mirrors and lenses. Microtextured alumi- LIGHTWEIGHT MODULAR INSTRUMENTATION FOR num is nearly as dark, but much less fragile. It is made by differential PLANETARY APPLICATIONS. P. B. Joshi,Physical Sciences ion beam sputtering, which generates light-trapping pores and cones Inc., 20 New England Business Center, Andover MA 01810, USA. slightly smaller than the wavelength to be absorbed. This leaves a sturdy but light-absorbing surface that can survive challenging Physical Sciences Inc. is currently developing under SDIO conditions without generating debris or contaminants. Both seeded sponsorship an instrumentation suite for monitoring the spacecraft ion beams and plasma immersion (from ECR plasmas) extraction environment and for accurately measuring the degradation of space can produce these microscopic textures without fragile interfaces. materials in LEO. The instrumentation, called SAMMES (Space Process parameters control feature size, spacing, and optical effects Active Modular Materials Experiments), features compact (~6-in (THR, BRDF). Both broad and narrow absorption bands can be engineered with tuning for specific wavelengths and applications. Examples will be presented characterized by FTIR in reflection •To Lander mode. Textured metal blacks are also ideal for blackbody calibrators (0.95 normal emissivity), heat rejection, and enhanced nucleate < V boiling. «_ Experiment — Control — ^ Module „ V NEW TECHNOLOGIES FORj DETECTORS. C. L. s. vi r?i Joseph, Space Astronomy Laboratory, University of Wisconsin, Electronics r \ 1 150 University Avenue, Madison WI 53706, USA. Test Module Mars Env. 14. \ o tj Monitor ip] Several technologies are currently being developed, leading to substantial improvements in the performance of UV detectors or significant reductions in power or weight. Four technologies dis- s. jr. vi _S X cussed are (1) thin-film coatings to enhance the UV sensitivity of Meteoroid Additional CCDs, (2) highly innovative magnet assemblies that dramatically Detector Module reduce weight and result in virtually no external flux, (3) new \t \ (Proon Spectrometef techniques for curving microchannel plates (MCPs) so that single 5 plates can be used to prevent ion feedback and present highly •>---„ l!\| — S<=> <=> <=>X localized charge clouds to an anode structure, and (4) high-perfor- mance alternatives to glass-based MCPs. In item (2), for example, Calorimeter Seismometry Module Module very robust magnets are made out of rare earth materials such as \ samarium cobalt, and cladding magnets are employed to prevent flux from escaping from the detector into the external environment J >J U|RP|RjGJ> These new ultralight magnet assemblies are able to create strong, ^Dust Monitor Solar YI exceptionally uniform magnetic fields for image intensification and r Module Photovoltaic focusing of photoelectrons. The principle advantage of such detec- \ Module tors is the quantum efficiencies of 70-80% obtained throughout ultraviolet wavelengths (900-2000 A), the highest of any device. Despite the improvements achieved under item (3), high-perfor- = TQCM 1]. = Sun Sensor mance alternatives to conventional glass-based MCPs potentially W offer three distinct new advantages that include (1) a 30-100-fold <S> = Calorimeter = Sun Position Sensor improvement in dynamic range resulting in correspondingly higher signal-to-noise ratios, (2) the use of pure dielectric and semiconduc- 0= AFcocrceele rBoa mlaentceers [uR- "J| = SReandsiaotiro (nTotal Dose) tor materials that will not outgas contaminants that eventually destroy photocathodes, and (3) channels that have constant spacing • System control module not needed providing long-ranged order since the plates are made using photo- for autonomic Instrument modules lithography techniques from the semiconductor industry. The manu- • Sensors can be on module or facturers of these advanced-technology MCPs, however, are a remotely wired to module couple of years away from actually producing a functioning image • RS 422 Command/Data Interface intensifier. between modules and lander/controller In contrast to the use of CCDs for optical, groundbased observa- tions, there is no single detector technology in the ultraviolet that Fig. 1. Sensor/instrumentation concept for lunar/martian application. 12 Workshop on Advanced Technologies for Planetary Instruments cube), lightweight (~2.5 kg) modules incorporating a variety of gratings to be evaluated in their design configurations with respect sensors and low-power (~5 W) processing electronics. The LEO to design specifications, manufacturer's data, and optical analytical Environment Monitor Module (EMM) sensor complement consists results. of two passively called Quartz Crystal Microbalances and three We will discuss the performance evaluation of the flight optical calorimeters for contaminant detection/characterization, three acti- components for the Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted nometers for measuring AO flux, two RADFETs for total dose Radiation (SUMER) instrument, a spectroscopic instrument to fly radiation measurement, a Sun position sensor, and a solar irradiance aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission, sensor. The EMM is designed as a remote terminal for MIL-STD- designed to study dynamic processes, temperatures, and densities in 1553B communication with an experiment bus controller and for the plasma of the upper atmosphere of the Sun in the wavelength independent operation of its sensors. The present design can be range from 50 nm to 160 nm. The optical components were modified to be fully autonomous, with module-based mass memory, evaluated for imaging and scatter in the UV. We will also review the onboard data processing, and software upload capability. performance evaluation of SOHO/CDS (Coronal Diagnostic Spec- The SAMMES architecture concept can be extended to instru- trometer) flight gratings tested for spectral resolution and scatter in mentation for planetary exploration, both on spacecraft and in situ. the DGEF and present preliminary results on resolution and scatter The operating environment for planetary application will be sub- testing of Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) technology stantially different, with temperature extremes and harsh solar wind development diffraction gratings. and cosmic ray flux on lunar surfaces and temperature extremes and high winds on venusian and martian surfaces. Moreover, instru- ments for surface deployment, which will be packaged in a small lander/rover (as in MESUR, for example), must be extremely MULTISCALE MORPHOLOGICAL FILTERING FOR compact with ultralow power and weight. With these requirements ANALYSIS OF NOISY AND COMPLEX IMAGES. A. Kher in mind, we have extended the SAMMES concept to a sensor/ and S. Mitra, Computer Vision and Image Analysis Laboratory, instrumentation scheme for the lunar and martian surface environ- Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas Tech University, ment, as illustrated in Fig. 1 • Lubbock TX 79410, USA. Images acquired with passive sensing techniques suffer from OPTICAL TECHNOLQG'IES FOR UV REMOTE SENSING illumination variations and poor local contrasts that create major INSTRUMENTS. R. A. M. Keski-Kuha, J. F. Osantowski, D. B. difficulties in interpretation and identification tasks. On the other Leviton, T. T. Saha, D. A. Content, R. A. Boucarut, J. S. Gum, G. A. hand, images acquired with active sensing techniques based on Wright, C. M. Fleetwood, and T. J. Madison, NASA Goddard Space monochromatic illumination are degraded with speckle noise. Math- Flight Center, Greenbelt MD 2077 1 , US A. ematical morphology offers elegant techniques to handle a wide range of image degradation problems. Unlike linear filters, morpho- Over the last decade significant advances in technology have logical filters do not blur the edges and hence maintain higher image made possible development of instruments with substantially im- resolution. Their rich mathematical framework facilitates the de- proved efficiency in the UV spectral region. In the area of optical sign and analysis of these filters as well as their hardware imple- coatings and materials, we discuss the importance of recent devel- mentation. Morphological filters are easier to implement and are opments in chemical vapor deposited (CVD) silicon carbide (SiC) more cost effective and efficient than several conventional linear mirrors, SiC films, and multilayer coatings in the context of filters. Morphological filters to remove speckle noise while main- ultraviolet instrumentation design. For example, the development taining high resolution and preserving thin image regions that are of chemically vapor deposited (CVD) silicon carbide (SiC) mirrors, particularly vulnerable to speckle noise [ 1 ] have been developed and with high ultraviolet (UV) reflectance and low scatter surfaces, applied to SAR imagery. These filters used combination of linear provides the opportunity to extend higher spectral/spatial resolution (one-dimensional) structuring elements in different (typically four) capability into the 50-nm region. Optical coatings for normal orientations (the median operators by Maragos [2]). Although this incidence diffraction gratings are particularly important for the approach preserves more details than the simple morphological evolution of efficient extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectrographs. SiC filters using two-dimensional structuring elements, the limited films are important for optimizing the spectrograph performance in orientations of one-dimensional elements approximate the fine the 90-nm spectral region. details of the region boundaries. A more robust filter designed Diffraction grating technology has always played a pivotal role recently overcomes the limitation of the fixed orientations. This in the development of spectroscopic instrumentation for ultraviolet filter uses a combination of concave and convex structuring ele- space flight instrumentation. An essential element in the successful ments. Morphological operators are also useful in extracting fea- diffraction grating development program is the ability to quantita- tures from visible and infrared imagery. A multiresolution image tively evaluate the performance of test diffraction gratings in the pyramid obtained with successive filtering and a subsampling early stages of the instrument development program. The Diffrac- process aids in the removal of the illumination variations and tion Grating Evaluation Facility (DGEF) at Goddard Space Right enhances local contrasts. A morphology-based interpolation scheme Center was established to evaluate the performance of new technol- has also been introduced to reduce intensity discontinuities created ogy diffraction gratings and other optical components for future in any morphological filtering task. The generality of morphological spaceflight instrumentation especially in the vacuum ultraviolet. filtering techniques in extracting information from a wide variety of DGEF is a unique, world-class, extremely versatile facility with images obtained with active and passive sensing techniques will be enormous evacuable optical set-up volume allowing mirrors and discussed. Such techniques are particularly useful in obtainingmore