DESIGN OF A HIGH-RESOLUTION TELESCOPE FOR AN IMAGING SENSOR TO CHARACTERIZE A (MARTIAN) LANDING SITE

The surveillance of large areas with high resolution is limited by the CCD technology, the readout electronics, and the data storage rate. An imaging concept that includes an optical camera and a survey strategy is proposed for remote landing-site certification. A I-m-diam telescope performs diffraction-limited imaging over its field of view, imaging an area of 0.25 x 0.25 m of the (Martian) surface on a 7 x 7-mu m pixel. With the sensor at 350 km above the 10 x 10-km site, this push-broom imaging configuration incorporates only five sensor passes over the site. The mission time is decreased by nearly 50% from the previously proposed concept for the site certification imaging.