Barry E. Tossman

CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars) on MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter)

CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars) is a hyperspectral imager that will be launched on the MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) spacecraft in August 2005. MRO’s objectives are to recover climate science originally to have been conducted on the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO), to identify and characterize sites of possible aqueous activity to which future landed missions may be sent, and to characterize the composition, geology, and stratigraphy of Martian surface deposits. MRO will operate from a sun-synchronous, near-circular (255x320 km altitude), near-polar orbit with a mean local solar time of 3 PM. CRISM’s spectral range spans the ultraviolet (UV) to the mid-wave infrared (MWIR), 383 nm to 3960 nm. The instrument utilizes a Ritchey-Chretien telescope with a 2.12° field-of-view (FOV) to focus light on the entrance slit of a dual spectrometer. Within the spectrometer, light is split by a dichroic into VNIR (visible-near-infrared, 383-1071 nm) and IR (infrared, 988-3960 nm) beams. Each beam is directed into a separate modified Offner spectrometer that focuses a spectrally dispersed image of the slit onto a two dimensional focal plane (FP). The IR FP is a 640 x 480 HgCdTe area array; the VNIR FP is a 640 x 480 silicon photodiode area array. The spectral image is contiguously sampled with a 6.6 nm spectral spacing and an instantaneous field of view of 61.5 μradians. The Optical Sensor Unit (OSU) can be gimbaled to take out along-track smear, allowing long integration times that afford high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at high spectral and spatial resolution. The scan motor and encoder are controlled by a separately housed Gimbal Motor Electronics (GME) unit. A Data Processing Unit (DPU) provides power, command and control, and data editing and compression. CRISM acquires three major types of observations of the Martian surface and atmosphere. In Multispectral Mapping Mode, with the gimbal pointed at planet nadir, data are collected at frame rates of 15 or 30 Hz. A commandable subset of wavelengths is saved by the DPU and binned 5:1 or 10:1 cross-track. The combination of frame rates and binning yields pixel footprints of 100 or 200 m. In this mode, nearly the entire planet can be mapped at wavelengths of key mineralogic absorption bands to select regions of interest. In Targeted Mode, the gimbal is scanned over ±60° from nadir to remove most along-track motion, and a region of interest is mapped at full spatial and spectral resolution. Ten additional abbreviated, pixel-binned observations are taken before and after the main hyperspectral image at longer atmospheric path lengths, providing an emission phase function (EPF) of the site for atmospheric study and correction of surface spectra for atmospheric effects. In Atmospheric Mode, the central observation is eliminated and only the EPF is acquired. Global grids of the resulting lower data volume observation are taken repeatedly throughout the Martian year to measure seasonal variations in atmospheric properties.

An underwater towed electromagnetic source for geophysical exploration

Low-frequency electromagnetic methods are used in geophysical exploration to detect the magnetic field distortion between a transmitter and receiver produced by locally conductive bodies. Both ground and airborne systems are in current use. It is possible to similarly conduct underwater geophysical exploration by using an underwater towed source of electromagnetic radiation and a receiving magnetic or electric field detector. The receiver can be towed on an auxiliary cable, mounted on a boom on the towing platform, or land based. An underwater towed electromagnetic source suitable for ocean-bottom exploration has been constructed, and its underwater propagation characteristics at low frequency have been studied. This underwater calibrated source (UCS) is 4 m long, weighs 383 kg in air, and can produce vertical and horizontal magnetic dipoles and a horizontal electric dipole. Powered by a current-feedback-controlled, high-power, modified sonar amplifier, the UCS can produce 9710 ampereturn.m2 of magnetic dipole or 200 A.m of electric dipole at 50 A at frequencies up to 200 Hz without significant attenuation from coil inductance. This paper concentrates on the mechanical, hydrodynamic, and magnetic design details of the UCS and the electrical system, consisting of the high-current drive power system and the shipboard monitoring system for attitude and depth detectors.

Imaging-neutral camera (INCA) for the NASA Cassini mission to Saturn and Titan

The INCA sensor is the first energetic neutral atom (ENA) imager funded for flight by NASA. It is a part of the Magnetrospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) on the Cassini mission to Saturn, where it will be well suited to monitoring the global dynamics of the Saturn-Titan magnetospheric system throughout the orbital tour. INCA will perform remote sensing of the magnetospheric energetic ion plasmas by detecting and imaging charge exchange neutrals, created when magnetospheric ions capture electrons from ambient neutral gas. The escaping charge exchange neutrals were detected by the Voyager-1 spacecraft outside Saturns magnetosphere, and can be used like photons to form images of the emitting regions, as has been done at Earth. Since Cassini is 3-axis oriented, INCA is designed as a 2D imager with a field of view of 90 by 120 degrees. The technique involves sensing the position of the ENA as it penetrates an entrance foil and again ont he back-plane microchannel plate, thereby establishing the ENAs trajectory and time- of-flight. Along with rough composition determined by pulse- height analysis, the sensor produces images of the hot plasma interaction with the cold ambient neutral gas as a function of species and energy, from approximately 20 keV to several MeV. A large geometric factor allows sufficient sensitivity to obtain statistically significant images in approximately 1 to 30 minutes, depending on conditions and location. We will discuss several of the design details unique to this instrument, as well as recent calibration results.

Compact reconnaissance imaging spectrometer for Mars (CRISM): characterization results for instrument and focal plane subsystems

The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) will launch in 2005 on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission, with its primary science objective to characterize sites with aqueous mineral deposits hyperspectrally at high spatial resolution. CRISM’s two Offner relay spectrometers share a single entrance slit with a dichroic beamsplitter. The IR focal plane contains a 640 (spatial) x 480 (spectral) HgCdTe FPA with a 980 nm to 3960 nm spectral bandpass. It is cooled to 110 K to minimize dark current, and coupled to a 28 mm long cold shield to minimize thermal background. The spectrometer housing is cooled to -90 C for the same reason. A three-zone IR filter consisting of two broadband filters and a linear variable filter overlays the IR focal plane, eliminating multiple grating orders and providing additional attenuation of the thermal background. The visible focal plane contains a 640 (spatial) x 480 (spectral) silicon photodiode array, with a 380-1050 nm spectral bandpass occupying approximately 106 rows of the detector. A two-zone filter comprised of two different Schott glasses eliminates multiple grating orders. The two focal planes together cover 544 spectral channels with a dispersion of 6.55 nm/channel in the VNIR and 6.63 nm/channel in the IR. The optics and focal planes are gimbaled, and a pre-programmed slew can be used to remove groundtrack motion while superimposing a scan across a target. CRISM will operate in two basic modes: a scanning, high resolution mode to hyperspectrally map small, targeted areas of high scientific interest, and a fixed, nadir-pointed, lower resolution pixel-binned mode using selected wavelength channels to obtain near-global coverage to find targets. Preliminary performance of the CRISM instrument is presented, and is compared with prior system design predictions.

An Underwater Towed Electromagnetic Source for Geophysical Exploration

Low-frequency electromagnetic methods are used in geophysical exploration to detect the magnetic field distortion between a transmitter and receiver produced by locally conductive bodies. Both ground and airborne systems are in current use. It is possible to similarly conduct underwater geophysical exploration by using an underwater towed source of electromagnetic radiation and a receiving magnetic or electric field detector. The receiver can be towed on an auxiliary cable, mounted on a boom on the towing platform, or land based. An underwater towed electromagnetic source suitable for ocean-bottom exploration has been constructed, and its underwater propagation characteristics at low frequency have been studied. This underwater calibrated source (UCS) is 4 m long, weighs 383 kg in air, and can produce vertical and horizontal magnetic dipoles and a horizontal electric dipole. Powered by a current-feedback-controlled, high-power, modified sonar amplifier, the UCS can produce 9710 ampereturn.m2 of magnetic dipole or 200 A.m of electric dipole at 50 A at frequencies up to 200 Hz without significant attenuation from coil inductance. This paper concentrates on the mechanical, hydrodynamic, and magnetic design details of the UCS and the electrical system, consisting of the high-current drive power system and the shipboard monitoring system for attitude and depth detectors.