NASA collaborates with private company to understand diffraction gratings

17 Jun 2002

Richardson Grating Laboratory (RGL) and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) have begun a joint research project to improve the understanding of the performance of diffraction gratings. This will include the study of groove profiles, grating scatter and grating efficiency.

Christopher Palmer, the vice president and chief scientist at RGL, said that the programme will not lead to the direct development of products or proprietary intellectual property. "This is a joint programme for the better understanding of diffraction gratings' behaviour and everything jointly discovered will be published - our competitors will also benefit."

Palmer explained that RGL will provide gratings for the project while GSFC has sophisticated equipment and techniques for measuring grating quality. Palmer said that two or three engineers and two or three technical staff from RGL will work on this project part of their time, alongside David Content at GSFC.

Diffraction gratings separate light, allowing different wavelengths to be analysed independently. GSFC uses gratings extensively in both ground and space based telescopes to determine the chemical composition of astronomical objects.

RGL is one of the main manufacturers of diffraction gratings for space research and has collaborated with NASA for many years.

This link between GSFC and RGL is one of a number of projects covered by recent amendments to US federal legislation known as the National Aeronautics and Space Act. These amendments promote research collaborations between government agencies and private industry on space related technology. The joint project is mostly funded by RGL. The agreement is negotiated year by year and Palmer says that the two parties are not currently thinking about an end date.

SH