Space-based camera systems

Beginning with Pioneer Venus in 1978, I have been involved in various roles with optical instrumentation designed to be flown on space missions. The space environment places severe constraints on instrument design so that by learning through failures there is now a high probability of success using radiation insensitive parts, protecting alignments from the vibrations of rocket launch and sometimes violent landing scenarios, and performing within a wide range of temperature extremes. Building on the excitement and successes of many missions, I was able to win in 2003, with the help of Lockheed Martin and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, an entire mission to Mars polar region called Phoenix. Today as a professor emeritus, cameras that I helped design are orbiting a near Earth asteroid named Bennu as the eyes of the OSIRIS-REx mission. None of these accomplishments would have been possible without the fundamental knowledge of optics instilled in me at the Optical Science Center. Jim Wyant is the first name that comes to mind when I think back to those years in the late 70’s. We crossed paths again when I became an employee of WYKO in the late 80’s helping with the phase-shift interferometers that his company was producing. But as a final gesture, Jim allowed me to complete my education in 2009 (32 years after receiving a Masters degree) as my PhD advisor using the Phoenix paper that was published in Science as my dissertation. This paper is a review of the lessons learned from both successes and failures after 43 years of working with space instrumentation.