Space instrumentation

Robotic planetary exploration relies upon a suite of scientific instruments to measure and record the environment under study, with the most ubiquitous instrument being some form of imager. This work describes the development of a microscope that can be mounted to the mast of planetary rover and obtain images with 10 μm spatial resolution at an unprecedented 5 meter distance. Rather than using traditional optics to generate images on a 2D focal plane array, this “remote microscope” uses a computation imaging technique to reconstruct images of targets. A set of four electronically programmable, frequency-shifted collimated laser beams that are symmetric about the axis of the optical system are projected to overlap at a distance of 5 meters and generate moving interference fringes which are used to probe the matched spatial Fourier components of the 2D intensity reflectivity function of the target surface. By probing and collecting a large set of these Fourier measurements, an image of the target is reconstructed using Fourier synthesis. This document provides a detailed description of the optical designs, electronic control requirements,
opto-mechanical structures, operational conditions and algorithmic techniques used to generate a functioning computational remote microscope. I describe and analyze a novel optical design capable of achieving the operational requirements of the system and derive the optical parameters and relevant aberrations. A novel optical surface testing technique useful for high departure aspheres is derived and demonstrated with experimental measurements. I describe in detail the optical procedures and electronics components of the laboratory implementation of the computational microscope. I report the images obtained using the microscope of scattering and reflective targets. Finally, calculation of the effects of a turbulent atmosphere on the operation of the microscope are derived and demonstrated with experimental data, and a new approach to measuring the turbulent atmosphere was developed.