Inactive

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is developing a swath mapping lidar for small planetary bodies using optical fiber lasers with pseudo noise (PN) code modulation under a Maturation of Instrumen... NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is developing a swath mapping lidar for small planetary bodies using optical fiber lasers with pseudo noise (PN) code modulation under a Maturation of Instruments for Solar System Exploration (MatISSE) program. One of the major subsystems of the lidar is an integrated detector cooler assembly (IDCA) with a 2x8 pixel mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) avalanche photodiode (APD) array and the support electronics in a mini Stirling cryo-cooler (also known as integrated detector-electronics-cooler assembly, or IDECA). The HgCdTe APD array must be able to detect single photon high efficiency at 1550 nm laser wavelength with linear mode photon counting (LMPC) outputs. The devices must be space radiation tolerant for a multi-year planetary mission.