Research Summaries

Back Maritime Beam Control

Fiscal Year 2012
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Investigator(s) Agrawal, Jr., Brij N.
Sponsor Office of Naval Research (Navy)
Summary The overall objective of this project is to develop beam control technologies and demonstrate them on the NPS High Energy (HEL) testbeds for future maritime Free Electron Laser (FEL) and other HEL weapon systems, and to educate DoD officers and civilians in this important area. The emphasis of the project will be on maritime beam control technology and HEL testbed development, Redundant Spacings Calibration (RSC), and beam control using the segmented mirror telescope testbed. For maritime beam control technology and HEL testbed development the research will be on advanced maritime beam control technologies such as characterization of the maritime environment, adaptive optics control, and jitter control. These technologies will be demonstrated on the current NPS beam control testbed and on the 2-10 kW HEL beam control testbed under development. We will educate DoD officers and civilians, including Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) engineers, in this technology. In addition, a Redundant Spacings Calibration (RSC) wavefront sensing technique will be developed and validated. This technique will simplify the architecture of HEL beam control systems by combining target tracking with wavefront sensing thus eliminating the need for a beacon laser.
NPS also received the 3 meter segmented mirror telescope in December 2009 allowing for an educational facility to do large-scale research in adaptive optics. An advisory panel was formed to identify key research interests and develop productive collaborations. Group members represent NPS, ONR, NRO, LMC, ITT, NRL, AFRL, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, JPL, UCSC, LLNL, and Aerospace. We will make the 3 meter Segmented Mirror Telescope Laboratory at NPS operational for research in beam control for FEL and adaptive optics using Shack-Hartmann and Phase Diversity sensors.
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Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal