A single-photon counting laser altimeter for a mission to the Moon

Kurzfassung

We report on the development of a single-photon counting laser altimeter and its scientific goals within the context of a potential mission to the Moon. The instrument facilitates a different detection scheme when compared to conventional laser altimeters in planetary research. An array of single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) on a CMOS chip is used for ultra-low light level detection down to a few photons per pixel. A lightweight combined transmitter-receiver optics with a small aperture diameter (8 cm) ensures the compatibility to the tight mass budget of the mission. The reduced resource consumption of this instrument concept is discussed and an instrument design overview is given. The maturity and TRL of the current design status is discussed. We report the results of two flight campaign with an instrument breadboard made of COTS parts and the results of a calibration campaign for determining key performance drivers of this novel instrument design. The expected scientific performance is presented and how it improves existing data of the Moon.