research

Mostly one instrument, looked at very closely.

MiLi

A miniaturised LiDAR for sounding the atmosphere of Mars. Its laser has to hold a precise temperature while everything around it swings between extremes.

[CAD render of MiLi]
View A. [Caption after the render.]
MiLi at a glance
TargetMars atmosphere
ProgrammeHorizon Europe, 2022 – 2025
CoordinatorINTA, Spain
PartnersPolitecnico di Milano, Italy
CINN-CSIC, Spain
York University, Canada
Asphericon, Germany
Integrated Optics, Lithuania
Field testYebes Observatory, Spain, next to the Phoenix lidar
My partOpto-mechanics and thermal control

How it was built

  1. Design

    Optical bench, emitter and detector mounts in Creo, with GD&T drawings for in-house and external workshops. Test fixtures and GSE too.

  2. Thermal control

    TEC-based active control of the NIR laser emitter: characterisation, closed-loop PID tuning, verification across the operating range.

  3. Analysis

    Quasi-static, modal and thermoelastic FEA in ANSYS Workbench, APDL and Creo Simulate, before any metal was cut.

  4. Testing

    Test procedures, 150+ hours of thermal vacuum, 5+ vibration campaigns, functional checks before and after each, anomaly reports.

Publications

All publications on Google Scholar