Scientists see the light
Scientists in Culham have created a laser which could one day be used to help land spacecraft on Mars.
The hi-tech LIDAR laser imaging system has been developed by Culham-based ABSL Space Products after a £900,000 European Space Agency investment.
Scientist Dr Joe Nawasra – pictured left with Karam Parmar and the LIDAR laser imaging system – said: “We face extremely challenging requirements. It has to work in a vacuum, in micro-gravity and in extreme temperatures.”
The system can detect light bouncing back from the laser to calculate how far away an object is and guide spacecraft.
Mounted on a satellite and looking back at the Earth, it could one day be used to detect earthquakes.
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