Student research opportunities
Laser technology for the GRACE Follow-on mission
Project Code: CECS_600
This project is available at the following levels:
Engn4200
Please note that this project is only for undergraduate students.
Supervisor:
Dr Daniel ShaddockOutline:
GRACE, for Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, is an incredibly successful satellite mission that has provided new and unexpected insights into the natural processes of the Earth. In the GRACE mission, the distance between two spacecraft is measured using a microwave ranging system which can be used to estimate changes of the Earth's gravity field.
GRACE will not last beyond 2013 and NASA intends to launch the GRACE Follow-on mission in 2016. GRACE Follow-on will improve the measurement sensitivity by adding a laser ranging system to the spacecraft. The ANU, in collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Albert Einstein Institute in Germany are developing this laser system.
We have several projects available to work on the development of this system in the areas of optical and mechanical engineering, control systems and digital signal processing using FPGAs.
