Federal award (DEFINITIVE CONTRACT, fiscal year 2021)
Recipient: FIBERTEK, INC.
Awarding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Funding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Period of performance: 2017-09-29 to 2022-06-27
Current total value of award: $1400014
Description: EO14042 NASA S EARTH SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY OFFICE HAS FUNDED A PHASE III EFFORT FOR FIBERTEK TO DEVELOP AN ENGINEERING VERSION OF A UV LASER SUITABLE FOR FUTURE SPACE-BASED REMOTE SENSING MEASUREMENTS WITH A GOAL OF ADVANCING THE LASER SYSTEM TO TRL-6. THE LASER HAS BEEN BUILT AND SHOWN TO MEET THE REQUIRED PERFORMANCE METRICS. LIFETIME TESTING AT FULL ENERGY AT 532 NM (125 MJ/PULSE AT BOTH 532 NM AND 1064 NM, 1.2 BILLION SHOTS) AND HALF POWER AT 355 NM (50 MJ/PULSE AT 355 NM BUT STILL 250 MJ/PULSE TOTAL ENERGY, 1.5 BILLION SHOTS) HAS DEMONSTRATED THE REQUIRED OPTICAL COMPONENT LIFETIME, BUT HAS SURFACED THE NEED FOR A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF PROPER PUMP DIODE DERATING TO MEET THE DESIRED&GT;14 BILLION SHOT LASER SYSTEM LIFETIME, A FACTOR OF 10 HIGHER THAN PERVIOUS MISSIONS/DEMONSTRATED TECHNOLOGIES. THIS PHASE III EFFORT LOOKS TO PERFORM ANALYSIS AND PREPARE FOR TESTING TO VERIFY THAT CURRENT DIODE PUMP TECHNOLOGY CAN SUPPORT THE&GT;14 BILLION SHOT LIFETIME FOR THE HEUVD LASER. A MORE COMPLETE MODEL OF THE HEUVD LASER IS ALSO SOUGHT TO BETTER QUANTIFY THE IMPACT OF DIODE DECAY ON THE 532 NM AND 355 NM LASER OUTPUTS. PHASE III GOALS WILL BE ACHIEVED BY LEVERAGING PREVIOUS WORK FROM BOTH PHASE I AND II STTRS AND SBIRS. THE PRIMARY STTR THAT IS BEING LEVERAGED, AND THAT WHICH WE LOOK TO LINK THIS PHASE III CONTRACT TO IS THE RECENTLY COMPLETED PHASE I STTR  ULTRA-COMPACT TRANSMITTER FOR SPACE- BASED LIDAR  (CONTRACT # NNX16CL43P). A KEY DEVELOPMENT FOR EXTENDING THE TECHNOLOGY FROM THIS PROGRAM INTO FUTURE SPACE-BASED MISSIONS IS AN IMPROVED QUANTITATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TO DE-RATE PUMP DIODES IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE LIFETIMES&GT;14 BILLION SHOTS.