The american university department of physics laser research group has been working cooperatively with colleagues at NASA goddard on the development of state of the art solid state and fiber optic…

This federal contract award to American University, valued at $1,604,454.19, supports the development of state-of-the-art solid state and fiber optic lasers for NASA's GEDI (Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation) mission. The university's Laser Research Group has collaborated with NASA Goddard since 1990 on the creation of laser transmitters for space flight, including the HOMER, VADER, and BIG HOMER laser systems. This grant-funded contract also covers the university's work on optical instrumentation for atmospheric and planetary science measurements, such as airborne topographic LIDARs, ground proximity sensors, UV light sources, and laser heterodyne radiometers. The contract does not utilize any set-aside designations. American University frequently serves as both a prime contractor and subcontractor on federal grants and contracts, leveraging its expertise across disciplines like public policy, international affairs, business, law, and the sciences to support the research and workforce development needs of government agencies including NASA, NSF, DoD, and VA.

The american university department of physics laser research group has been working cooperatively with colleagues at NASA goddard on the development of state of the art solid state and fiber optic lasers since 1990. In collaboration with colleagues, we have developed laser transmitters for space flight such as the high output maximum efficiency resonator homer laser, and the dual head lasers vader and big homer. We are currently working on several subsystems for the global ecosystem dynamics investigation gedi mission that will put a vegetation lidar instrument on the international space station in 2018. In addition to our work for gedi, we have been working on developing optical instrumentation to enable atmospheric and planetary science measurements. These efforts include airplane based topographic lidars, ground proximity sensors, ultraviolet light sources for mass spectrometers, and ground and space based laser heterodyne radiometers.