Tech Briefs Magazine - March 2021 - 61

Langley also shapes technologies for robotic construction in space, allowing longer, more distant missions. The
Lightweight Surface Manipulation System will be used by
companies selected to land payloads on the Moon.
Through a set of On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing projects, researchers will learn how to use
robotics and autonomy to build infrastructure on the
Moon and in space.

LiDAR
Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has emerged as a
powerful and versatile tool for NASA. Langley developed
Flash LiDAR for real-time terrain mapping and synthetic
vision-based navigation. To take advantage of the information inherent in a sequence of 3D images acquired at video
rates, Langley also developed an embedded image processing algorithm that can simultaneously correct, enhance,
and derive relative motion by processing this image sequence into a high-resolution 3D synthetic image.
Traditional scanning LiDAR techniques generate an
image frame by raster scanning an image one laser pulse
per pixel at a time, whereas Flash LiDAR acquires an
image much like an ordinary camera, generating an image
using a single laser pulse. The benefits of Flash LiDAR
Navigation Doppler LiDAR (NDL) provides ultra-precise vehicle speed and posienable autonomous vision-based guidance and control for
tion and line-of-sight range measurements to ensure safe and precise landings
of spacecraft on planetary bodies.
robotic systems.
Navigation Doppler LiDAR (NDL) is being considered to
a 2018 launch by Rocket Lab, it blasted to orbit along with a set
assure safe and precise landings on planetary bodies. NDL,
of other demonstrations and experiments. Shields-1 tested new
which accurately measures vehicle speed and position, could
shielding material developed at Langley.
help NASA land the first woman and next man on the Moon.
The powerful Space Launch System rocket will kick off
Technologies
trailblazing NASA missions. Langley's aerosciences team test* Remote, Noninvasive, Cardiac Activity Tracer (RENCAT) -
ed configurations in the center's Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel,
This laser vibrometer sensor monitors cardiac activities remotely
14 × 22-foot Subsonic Tunnel, and National Transonic Faand non-invasively; specifically, heart functions of valve/
cility wind tunnel.
chamber opening and closing cycles (cardiac cycles). The device
NASA's successful Ascent Abort-2 test flight was an important
provides precise magnitude and timing information away from
step toward protecting the astronauts who will soon embark on
the heart region without interference by patient garments.
missions to the Moon and, one day, Mars. The Orion Launch
Abort System program, managed at Langley, will make
sure the abort system is ready if needed.
About half the size of a computer mouse, the Stereo
Camera for Lunar Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) will
journey to the Moon this year as a payload aboard an
Intuitive Machines Nova-C lunar lander spacecraft. Four
of the tiny cameras will show NASA researchers what happens under a spacecraft as it lands on the Moon.
SCALPSS will provide important data about the crater
formed by the rocket plume of the lander as it makes its
final descent and landing on the Moon's surface.
Data from SCALPSS will provide computer models
that inform subsequent landings. The SCALPSS cameras,
which will be placed around the base of the lander, will
begin monitoring crater formation from the precise
moment a lander's hot engine plume begins to interact
with the Moon's surface. The cameras will continue capturing images until after the landing is complete. Those
final stereo images, which will be stored on a small
onboard data storage unit before being sent to the landLangley's 3D printing test station enables testing of material deposition and
er for downlink back to Earth, will allow researchers to layer adhesion as a part is being printed. It enables users to adjust print paramreconstruct the crater's ultimate shape and volume.
eters to control the quality of the fabricated part.
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Tech Briefs Magazine - March 2021

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