Demonstration of the Use of Fiber Bragg Grating for Optical Sensing (FIBOS) during an Aerospace Mission

Abstract

Fiber Bragg Gratings, FBG, are very appropriate strain and temperature sensors for structural health monitoring of satellite structures. They can be embedded in composite structures and monitor the entire life cycle of a satellite structure from the manufacturing process, to the mechanical and thermal certification tests, the launch loads up to the operative loads in space. The optical device based in two FBGs that will be used to measure temperature and strain during the OPTOS mission is presented. OPTOS is a picosatellite, designed and manufactured by the Spanish Institute for Aerospace Technology, INTA that will be launched at the beginning of 2009. The main goal of the mission is to demonstrate the feasibility of several technologies for space applications inside a miniaturized space and with big restrictions in terms of mass and power consumption. The paper describes the different units that constitute the FIBOS payload: a) one monolithic tunable laser used as light source offering great advantages as wide range of tunability, robustness and fast electronically operation; b) two FBGs that are mounted onto one steel mechanical structure to monitor independently temperature and strain; c) the processing unit that contains the digital electronics that processes the signal produced by the receiver unit, follows the synchronization between the laser source and the receiver and contains the electrical interface with the Electrical Power Subsystem (EPS) and the On-board Data Handling (OBDH) of the satellite.