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Prospects for the Development of Fast-Light Inertial SensorsNext-generation space missions are constrained by existing spacecraft navigation systems which are not fully autonomous. These systems suffer from accumulated dead-reckoning errors and must therefore rely on periodic updates provided by supplementary technologies that depend on line-of-sight signals from Earth, satellites, or other celestial bodies (e.g., GPS, star-trackers) for absolute attitude and position determination, which can be spoofed, incorrectly identified, occluded, obscured, attenuated, or insufficiently available. These dead-reckoning errors originate in the accelerometers and ring laser gyros (RLGs) themselves, which constitute inertial measurement units (IMUs). Increasing the time for standalone spacecraft navigation therefore requires fundamental improvements in the precision of inertial sensors. The conventional method of increasing the precision of an optical gyro is to increase its size, but this is problematic in spaceflight where size and weight are at a premium. One promising solution to enhance gyro precision without increasing size is to place an anomalous dispersion or fast-light (FL) material inside the gyro cavity. The FL essentially provides a positive feedback to the gyro response, resulting in a larger measured beat frequency for a given rotation rate as shown in figure 1.
Document ID
20180006415
Acquisition Source
Marshall Space Flight Center
Document Type
Technical Memorandum (TM)
Authors
Smith, D. D. (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Keys, A. S. (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
Date Acquired
October 17, 2018
Publication Date
September 1, 2018
Subject Category
Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command And Tracking
Instrumentation And Photography
Report/Patent Number
NASA/TM-2018-219867
M18-6944
M-1472
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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