A laser scans the inside of the X-59 aircraft’s lower engine bay at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. These scans can help identify potential hardware or wiring interferences prior to the final installation of the engine and lower tail.

This video clip shows a 3D printing technique where a printer head scans over each layer of a part, blowing metal powder that is melted by a laser. It's one of several ways parts are 3D printed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but was not used to create the parts aboard the Perseverance rover. Movie available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23972

The SHERLOC instrument is located at the end of the robotic arm on NASA's Mars 2020 rover. SHERLOC (short for Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) is a spectrometer that will provide fine-scale imaging and use an ultraviolet laser to determine fine-scale mineralogy and detect organic compounds on Mars. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23621

S123-E-008424 (23 March 2008) --- Astronaut Mike Foreman, STS-123 mission specialist, helps to tie down the Orbiter Boom Sensor System on the International Space Station's S1 truss during EVA 5 on March 22. The structure at the end of the boom is a transmission device for laser imagery from the laser devices used for scanning the thermal protection system.

How do you measure a cloud? Tim Bencic does it with lasers. The NASA Glenn engineer invented a tomography system for our Propulsion Systems Lab to help understand the dangers of ice crystal icing on airplanes. Bencic’s system, affectionally called “Tim-ography” is like a CAT Scan. The laser light within its circular geometry bounces off the surface of ice particles in the cloud and fiber optic detectors map out its properties. This tool is helping NASA’s researchers make aircraft safer in challenging weather conditions.

Pictured is a model to study the ice collection on struts in jet engines during flight. Researchers inspect the ice after the model encounters a simulated icing cloud during testing. Super cooled water created from the icing cloud that flows though the wind tunnel. The super cooled water forms ice on contact with the test model. Researchers then inspect the ice formation before laser scanning of the ice formation for further research and analysis.

Shown here is a prototype of the Deep Space Optical Communications, or DSOC, ground receiver detector built by the Microdevices Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The prototype superconducting nanowire single-photon detector was used by JPL technologists to help develop the detector that – from a station on Earth – will receive near-infrared laser signals from the DSOC flight transceiver traveling with NASA's Psyche mission in deep space. DSOC will test key technologies that could enable high-bandwidth optical, or laser, communications from Mars distances. Bolted to the side of the spacecraft and operating for the first two years of Psyche's journey to the asteroid of the same name, the DSOC flight laser transceiver will transmit high-rate data to Caltech's Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, which houses the 200-inch (5.1-meter) Hale Telescope. The downlink detector converts optical signals to electrical signals, which can be processed and decoded. The detector is designed to be both sensitive enough to detect single photons (quantum particles of light) and able to detect many photons arriving all at once. At its farthest point during the technology demonstration's operations period, the transceiver will be up to 240 million miles (390 million kilometers) away, meaning that by the time its weak laser pulses arrive at Earth, the detector will need to efficiently detect a trickle of single photons. But when the spacecraft is closer to Earth and the flight transceiver is delivering its highest bit rate to Palomar, the detector is capable of detecting very high numbers of photons without becoming overwhelmed. Because data is encoded in the timing of the laser pulses, the detector must also be able to determine the time of a photon's arrival with a precision of 100 picoseconds (one picosecond is one trillionth of a second). DSOC is the latest in a series of optical communication technology demonstrations funded by NASA's Technology Demonstrations Missions (TDM) program and the agency's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages DSOC for TDM within NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate and SCaN within the agency's Space Operations Mission Directorate. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25840

A close-up view of an engineering model of SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals), one the instruments aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. Located on the end of the rover's robotic arm, this instrument features an auto-focusing camera (pictured) that shoots black-and-white images used by SHERLOC's color camera, called WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering), to zero in on rock textures. SHERLOC also has a laser, which aims for the dead center of rock surfaces depicted in WATSON's images. The laser uses a technique called Raman spectroscopy to detect minerals in microscopic rock features; that data is then superimposed on WATSON's images. These mineral maps help scientists determine which rock samples Perseverance should drill so that they can be sealed in metal tubes and left on the Martian surface for a future mission to return to Earth. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23894

S134-E-006505 (17 May 2011) --- The Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS), pictured on the second flight day of STS-134, on left side of this photo showing Endeavour's vertical stabilizer and cargo bay, is a 50-foot boom carried onboard each of NASA's space shuttles. The boom can be grappled by the Canadarm and serves as an extension of the arm, doubling its length to a combined total of 100 feet (30 meters). At the far end of the boom is an instrumentation package of cameras and lasers used to scan the leading edges of the wings, the nose cap, and the crew compartment after each lift-off and before each landing. Photo credit: NASA

jsc2023e010177 (4/7/2022) --- This image is a scanning electron microscopic image of one of the ESA-Biofilms sample plates from the first launch to the ISS. The sample plate in this image is made of copper, which naturally has antimicrobial properties. This surface has a 3 µm laser structure engraved to the surface which improves antimicrobial efficacy. On the surface, only few cells of the bacterial species Staphylococcus capitis are attached. The cells appear small and are not actively dividing. The ESA-Biofilms investigation studies bacterial biofilm formation and antimicrobial properties of different metal surfaces under spaceflight conditions in altered gravity. Image courtesy of DLR, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.

Shown here is an identical copy of the Deep Space Optical Communications, or DSOC, superconducting nanowire single-photon detector that is coupled to the 200-inch (5.1-meter) Hale Telescope located at Caltech's Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California. Built by the Microdevices Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the detector is designed to receive near-infrared laser signals from the DSOC flight transceiver traveling with NASA's Psyche mission in deep space as a part of the technology demonstration. DSOC will test key technologies that could enable high-bandwidth optical, or laser, communications from Mars distances. Bolted to the side of the spacecraft and operating for the first two years of Psyche's journey to the asteroid of the same name, the DSOC flight laser transceiver will transmit high-rate data to Caltech's Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, which houses the 200-inch (5.1-meter) Hale Telescope. The downlink detector converts optical signals to electrical signals, which can be processed and decoded. The detector is designed to be both sensitive enough to detect single photons (quantum particles of light) and able to detect many photons arriving all at once. At its farthest point during the technology demonstration's operations period, the transceiver will be up to 240 million miles (390 million kilometers) away, meaning that by the time its weak laser pulses arrive at Earth, the detector will need to efficiently detect a trickle of single photons. But when the spacecraft is closer to Earth and the flight transceiver is delivering its highest bit rate to Palomar, the detector is capable of detecting very high numbers of photons without becoming overwhelmed. Because data is encoded in the timing of the laser pulses, the detector must also be able to determine the time of a photon's arrival with a precision of 100 picoseconds (one picosecond is one trillionth of a second). To sense single photons, the detector must be in a superconducting state (when electrical current flows with zero resistance), so it is cryogenically cooled to less than minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit (or 1 Kelvin), which is close to absolute zero, or the lowest temperature possible. A photon absorbed in the detector disrupts its superconducting state, creating a measurable electrical pulse as current leaves the detector. DSOC is the latest in a series of optical communication technology demonstrations funded by NASA's Technology Demonstrations Missions (TDM) program and the agency's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages DSOC for TDM within NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate and SCaN within the agency's Space Operations Mission Directorate. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26141

In this illustration, NASA's Perseverance rover uses its Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) instrument to analyze a rock on the surface of Mars. PIXL uses a focused X-ray beam to analyze the chemistry of features as small as a grain of sand. The tiny but powerful beam causes rocks to fluoresce, or produce a glow. While the glow is invisible to the human eye, it is detectable by the instrument and varies according to the rock's elemental chemistry. PIXL scan the beam across the surface of the rock to produce a postage-stamp-sized map of the rock's chemistry at the end of an overnight scan. PIXL also has an optical fiducial system (OFS) that includes white "flood lights" — seen on the rock in this artist's concept — that is used together with a pattern of red lasers to illuminate the rock while its camera captures images of the mapped area. The pictures are used for multiple purposes: PIXL analyzes them on board to work out where the target is — in 3D — and move itself into the right position for science collection and the safety of the instrument. The pictures are also downlinked to Earth so scientists can see exactly where each measurement was taken. This allows scientists to tie chemistry accurately to rock texture, which helps them to determine how these features formed and whether they were biological in nature. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23719

jsc2023e010178 (4/7/2022) --- This image taken by a scanning electron microscope shows one of the ESA-Biofilms sample plates from its first launch to the International Space Station. The sample plate in this image is made of stainless steel, which is the reference surface in the experiment since it has no antimicrobial properties. This surface also has a 3 µm laser structure engraved to the surface as control. In contrast to the copper surface, there are many Staphylococcus capitis cells attached to the steel surface that are actively dividing and starting to from components of a biofilm matrix. The ESA-Biofilms investigation studies bacterial biofilm formation and antimicrobial properties of different metal surfaces under spaceflight conditions in altered gravity. Image courtesy of DLR, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.

AS17-145-22254 (14 Dec. 1972) --- An excellent view of the Apollo 17 Command and Service Modules (CSM) photographed from the Lunar Module (LM) "Challenger" during rendezvous and docking maneuvers in lunar orbit. The LM ascent stage, with astronauts Eugene A. Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt aboard, had just returned from the Taurus-Littrow landing site on the lunar surface. Astronaut Ronald E. Evans remained with the CSM in lunar orbit. Note the exposed Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) Bay in Sector 1 of the Service Module (SM). Three experiments are carried in the SIM bay: S-209 lunar sounder, S-171 infrared scanning spectrometer, and the S-169 far-ultraviolet spectrometer. Also mounted in the SIM bay are the panoramic camera, mapping camera and laser altimeter used in service module photographic tasks. A portion of the LM is on the right.

This labyrinth – with a silhouette of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes at its center – is used as a calibration target for the cameras and laser that are part of SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals), one of the instruments aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. The image was captured by the Autofocus and Context Imager on SHERLOC on May 11, 2024, the 1,147th day, or sol, of the mission, as the rover team sought to confirm it had successfully addressed an issue with a stuck lens cover. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover is also characterizing the planet's geology and past climate, which paves the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26337

This annotated image from NASA's Perseverance Mars rover shows how its SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Minerals) instrument investigates a rock surface. After an area has been ground down by the abrasion tool on the rover's arm, SHERLOC fires its laser in a grid pattern, shown here with blue dots. This scan area is roughly the size of a pencil eraser. SHERLOC's laser allows scientists to see how light interacts with the rock surface and reveals different components in the rock, including chemicals, minerals, and organic matter. The image was created by combining two SHERLOC images: one from the Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering (WATSON) camera, and one from the Autofocus and Context Imager (ACI) camera. Those images were taken at a location called "Wildcat Ridge" on July 22, 2022, the 505th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The image color has been enhanced to increase contrast so different rock components are easier to distinguish. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25245

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured this image of a rock target nicknamed "Quartier" with the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera belonging to an instrument called SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals). The rover uses a tool to abrade the surface of a rock (as with the circular portion in this image), removing dust, debris and other material that has settled on the rock's outer surface. After that's complete, instruments like SHERLOC can study the rock's composition. The white squares show areas where SHERLOC performed multiple scans with its ultraviolet laser. SHERLOC detected signals within Quartier consistent with organic, carbon-based molecules. If they are organic molecules – something that could be verified only by bringing the samples to Earth for closer study – they would have likely been formed by geological processes as opposed to ancient biological sources, but they represent the kinds of molecules Perseverance's science team are looking for. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25919

The calibration target for SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) an instrument on the end of the Perseverance Mars rover's 7-foot-long (3-meter-long) robotic arm, includes a geocaching target, spacesuit materials, and a slice of a Martian meteorite. Scientists rely on calibration targets to fine-tune instrument settings using materials with known properties. The bottom row of this target features spacesuit materials that scientists will observe to see how they react over time to the irradiated Martian atmosphere. The first sample at left is polycarbonate for use in a helmet visor; inscribed with the address of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, it doubles as a geochache for the public. Other materials in the bottom row, from left: Vectran; Ortho-Fabric; Teflon; coated Teflon. Top row, from left: aluminum gallium nitride on sapphire; a quartz diffuser; a slice of Martian meteorite; a maze for testing laser intensity; a separate aluminum gallium nitride on sapphire with different properties. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24261

At left is NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. The annotation shows where spacesuit materials can be found attached to a calibration target for SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals), one of the rover's instruments. At right is a close-up of the calibration target. Scientists rely on calibration targets to fine-tune instrument settings using materials with known properties. In the case of SHERLOC's calibration target, they are also studying how the five swatches of spacesuit materials arranged along the bottom row degrade in the Martian environment. Those materials, from left to right: a piece of polycarbonate visor used in spacesuit helmets; Vectran, a cut-resistant material used for the palms of astronaut gloves; a commonly used spacesuit material called Ortho-Fabric; and two kinds of Teflon, which has dust-repelling nonstick properties. Top row, left to right: two gallium nitride targets that glow different colors when illuminated with SHERLOC's laser; a slice of Martian meteorite named Sayh al Uhaymir 008 (SaH 008); a maze designed to focus SHERLOC's camera; and a diffuse transmission target that measures how SHERLOC's laser scatters light. This image was taken by the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera, which is part of SHERLOC on the end of Perseverance's robotic arm. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. NASA's Mars Sample Return Program, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), is designed to send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program (MEP) portfolio and the agency's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26520

On March 31, the P-3 departed Thule, Greenland. IceBridge teams flew a science transit flight to Kangerlussaq, Greenland, where missions will be based for the next several weeks before returning to Thule. Along the route, instruments surveyed several targets of opportunity including two ground tracks of the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) and several glaciers (Rink, Kangerdlugssuaq, Jakobshavn and Russell), turning up great data and spectacular views. March 29 was another perfect day for a land ice flight. The P-3 flew between deep canyons and over glaciers along the northwest coast of Greenland. But before the start of land ice flights, IceBridge reached a key milestone over sea ice. On March 28, IceBridge flew its eighth sea ice flight marking the completion of all high- and medium-priority sea ice missions planned from Thule. Among the sea ice missions was a science transit back from Fairbanks to Thule on March 25, during which the P-3 surveyed in complete darkness. Researchers watched the scanning pattern of the green lasers on the sea ice below and the beautiful Aurora Borealis above. To learn more about Ice Bridge go to: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/news/spr11/index.html" rel="nofollow">www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/news/spr11/index.html</a> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASA_GoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Join us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b>

This 2015 diagram shows components of the investigations payload for NASA's Mars 2020 rover mission. Mars 2020 will re-use the basic engineering of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory to send a different rover to Mars, with new objectives and instruments, launching in 2020. The rover will carry seven instruments to conduct its science and exploration technology investigations. They are: Mastcam-Z, an advanced camera system with panoramic and stereoscopic imaging capability and the ability to zoom. The instrument also will determine mineralogy of the Martian surface and assist with rover operations. The principal investigator is James Bell, Arizona State University in Tempe. SuperCam, an instrument that can provide imaging, chemical composition analysis, and mineralogy. The instrument will also be able to detect the presence of organic compounds in rocks and regolith from a distance. The principal investigator is Roger Wiens, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico. This instrument also has a significant contribution from the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (CNES/IRAP) France. Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL), an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer that will also contain an imager with high resolution to determine the fine-scale elemental composition of Martian surface materials. PIXL will provide capabilities that permit more detailed detection and analysis of chemical elements than ever before. The principal investigator is Abigail Allwood, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC), a spectrometer that will provide fine-scale imaging and uses an ultraviolet (UV) laser to determine fine-scale mineralogy and detect organic compounds. SHERLOC will be the first UV Raman spectrometer to fly to the surface of Mars and will provide complementary measurements with other instruments in the payload. SHERLOC includes a high-resolution color camera for microscopic imaging of Mars' surface. The principal investigator is Luther Beegle, JPL. The Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE), an exploration technology investigation that will produce oxygen from Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide. The principal investigator is Michael Hecht, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA), a set of sensors that will provide measurements of temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, relative humidity and dust size and shape. The principal investigator is Jose Rodriguez-Manfredi, Centro de Astrobiologia, Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial, Spain. The Radar Imager for Mars' Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX), a ground-penetrating radar that will provide centimeter-scale resolution of the geologic structure of the subsurface. The principal investigator is Svein-Erik Hamran, the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, Norway. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19672