Single photon lidar demonstrator for asteroid rendezvous missions

摘要

We present compact single photon lidar demonstrator dedicated for asteroid rendezvous missions. The instrument provides crucial data on altitude and terrain profile for altitudes exceeding 5 km with a precision of less than 10 cm fulfilling the Rayleigh criterion. Transmitter and receiver optics designs are discussed, control and processing electronics based on a single rad-hard compatible FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) is analyzed. The FPGA electronics subsystems are TDC (Time-to-Digit Converter), laser trigger pulse generator and gate generator. Indoor calibration procedures of the whole demonstrator chain are proposed and evaluated. The calibration covers positioning of receiver and transmitter optics related to detector and laser, aligning of transmitter and receiver optical common paths. The retrieving strategy of terrain elevation profile is proposed and via indoor tests validated. Theory for surface slope and scanning is established, simulation and measurement results are compared and discussed.