NGSLR Optical Bench Laboratory Build Status 
08/15/2012 The design and laboratory build of the new Optical Bench has been completed. Assembled at a GSFC Building 33 clean room laboratory, the new bench offers an improved optical layout, incorporates alignment lasers, and uses monitoring cameras for more efficient alignments. A beam profiler has been incorporated allowing verification of the transmit beam divergence and doubles as a means of monitoring the pointing of the laser. The new design now supports motorized optical mounts to enable automated operations. The Optical Bench was upgraded with a higher power, shorter pulse width laser for more robust daylight GPS ranging along with the use of high power coatings on the transmit optics to handle the extra energy. The original Optical Bench was designed for laser energies up to 350 microjoules while the new Optical Bench is designed to handle energies up to 3,000 microjoules. The laboratory build of the new Optical Bench allowed engineers to test the new layout and develop alignment procedures for the enhanced design. While the build was taking place in the laboratory, system development efforts were allowed to continue at the NGSLR. Completed in July, the new bench is in the process of being moved to the NGSLR. Pictures of the new bench undergoing the laboratory build are shown.

View images