{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,25]],"date-time":"2026-04-25T09:32:29Z","timestamp":1777109549301,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,20]],"date-time":"2019-02-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1550620800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Advanced Exploration Systems program in the NASA Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) mission directorate and in the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD)","award":["unknown"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["unknown"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Lunar Flashlight (LF) is an innovative National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) CubeSat mission that is dedicated to quantifying and mapping the water ice harbored in the permanently shadowed craters of the lunar South Pole. The primary goal is to understand the lunar resource potential for future human exploration of the Moon. To this end, the LF spacecraft will carry an active multi-band reflectometer, based on an optical receiver aligned with four high-power diode lasers emitting in the 1 to 2-\u03bcm shortwave infrared band, to measure the reflectance of the lunar surface from orbit near water ice absorption peaks. We present the detailed optical, mechanical, and thermal design of the receiver, which is required to fabricate this instrument within very demanding CubeSat resource allocations. The receiver has been optimized for solar stray light rejection from outside its field of view, and utilizes a 70 \u00d7 70-mm, aluminum, off-axis paraboloidal mirror with a focal length of 70 mm, which collects the reflected light from the Moon surface onto a single-pixel InGaAs detector with a 2-mm diameter, hence providing a 20-mrad field of view. The characterization of the flight receiver is also presented, and the results are in agreement with the expected performance obtained from simulations. Planned to be launched by NASA on the first Space Launch System (SLS) test flight, this highly mass-constrained and volume-constrained instrument payload will demonstrate several firsts, including being one of the first instruments onboard a CubeSat performing science measurements beyond low Earth orbit, and the first planetary mission to use multi-band active reflectometry from orbit.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11040440","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,20]],"date-time":"2019-02-20T11:45:39Z","timestamp":1550663139000},"page":"440","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Design and Characterization of the Multi-Band SWIR Receiver for the Lunar Flashlight CubeSat Mission"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Quentin","family":"Vinckier","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Luke","family":"Hardy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Megan","family":"Gibson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Sierra Lobo Inc., 102 Pinnacle Drive, Fremont, OH 43420, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Christopher","family":"Smith","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Sierra Lobo Inc., 102 Pinnacle Drive, Fremont, OH 43420, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Philip","family":"Putman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Sierra Lobo Inc., 102 Pinnacle Drive, Fremont, OH 43420, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Paul O.","family":"Hayne","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Colorado, 391 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"R. Glenn","family":"Sellar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Pendray, G.E. (1970). The Papers of Robert H. Goddard, McGraw-Hill."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1598","DOI":"10.1029\/JZ066i005p01598","article-title":"On the possible presence of ice on the Moon","volume":"66","author":"Watson","year":"1961","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"479","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1187726","article-title":"Diviner lunar radiometer observations of cold traps in the Moon\u2019s south polar region","volume":"330","author":"Paige","year":"2010","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"58","DOI":"10.1016\/j.icarus.2015.03.032","article-title":"Evidence for exposed water ice in the Moon\u2019s south polar regions from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ultraviolet albedo and temperature measurements","volume":"255","author":"Hayne","year":"2015","journal-title":"Icarus"},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Hayne, P.O., Paige, D.A., Ingersoll, A.P., Judd, M.A., Aharonson, O., Alkali, L., Byrne, S., Cohen, B., Colaprete, A., and Combe, J.P. (2013, January 14\u201316). New Approaches to Lunar Ice Detection and Mapping: Study Overview and Results of the First Workshop. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"(2018, October 02). The Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG); The Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG); The Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG) Strategic Knowledge Gaps (SKGs), Available online: https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/exploration\/library\/skg.html."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Thomson, B.J., Bussey, D.B.J., Neish, C.D., Cahill, J.T.S., Heggy, E., Kirk, R.L., Patterson, G.W., Raney, R.K., Spudis, P.D., and Thompson, T.W. (2012). An upper limit for ice in Shackleton crater as revealed by LRO Mini-RF orbital radar. Geophys. Res. Lett., 39.","DOI":"10.1029\/2012GL052119"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2016","DOI":"10.1002\/jgre.20156","article-title":"Evidence for water ice on the Moon: Results for anomalous polar craters from the LRO Mini-RF imaging radar","volume":"118","author":"Spudis","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res. Planets"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1495","DOI":"10.1126\/science.274.5292.1495","article-title":"The Clementine bistatic radar experiment","volume":"274","author":"Nozette","year":"2016","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1496","DOI":"10.1126\/science.281.5382.1496","article-title":"Fluxes of fast and epithermal neutrons from Lunar Prospector: Evidence for water ice at the lunar poles","volume":"281","author":"Feldman","year":"1998","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4175","DOI":"10.1029\/1999JE001129","article-title":"Polar hydrogen deposits on the Moon","volume":"105","author":"Feldman","year":"2000","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"23231","DOI":"10.1029\/2000JE001444","article-title":"Evidence for water ice near the lunar poles","volume":"106","author":"Feldman","year":"2001","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"483","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1185696","article-title":"Hydrogen mapping of the lunar south pole using the LRO neutron detector experiment LEND","volume":"330","author":"Mitrofanov","year":"2010","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mitrofanov, I., Litvak, M., Sanin, A., Malakhov, A., Golovin, D., Boynton, W., Droege, G., Chin, G., Evans, L., and Harshman, K. (2012). Testing polar spots of water-rich permafrost on the Moon: LEND observations onboard LRO. J. Geophys. Res. Planets, 117.","DOI":"10.1029\/2011JE003956"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Boynton, W.V., Droege, G.F., Mitrofanov, I.G., McClanahan, T.P., Sanin, A.B., Litvak, M.L., Schaffner, M., Chin, G., Evans, L.G., and Garvin, J.B. (2012). High spatial resolution studies of epithermal neutron emission from the lunar poles: Constraints on hydrogen mobility. J. Geophys. Res. Planets, 117.","DOI":"10.1029\/2011JE003979"},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"Livengood, T.A., Chin, G., Sagdeev, R.Z., Mitrofanov, I.G., Boynton, W.V., Evans, L.G., Litvak, M.L., McClanahan, T.P., Sanin, A.B., and Starr, R.D. (2014, January 17\u201321). Evidence for Diurnally Varying Hydration at the Moon\u2019s Equator from the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND). Proceedings of the 45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, TX, USA."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"25","DOI":"10.1016\/j.icarus.2015.12.003","article-title":"Signatures of volatiles in the lunar proton albedo","volume":"273","author":"Schwadron","year":"2016","journal-title":"Icarus"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gladstone, G.R., Retherford, K.D., Egan, A.F., Kaufmann, D.E., Miles, P.F., Parker, J.W., Horvath, D., Rojas, P.M., Versteeg, M.H., and Davis, M.W. (2012). Far-ultraviolet reflectance properties of the Moon\u2019s permanently shadowed regions. J. Geophys. Res. Planets, 117.","DOI":"10.1029\/2011JE003913"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hendrix, A.R., Retherford, K.D., Randall Gladstone, G., Hurley, D.M., Feldman, P.D., Egan, A.F., Kaufmann, D.E., Miles, P.F., Parker, J.W., and Horvath, D. (2012). The lunar far-UV albedo: Indicator of hydration and weathering. J. Geophys. Res. Planets, 117.","DOI":"10.1029\/2012JE004252"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"463","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1186986","article-title":"Detection of water in the LCROSS ejecta plume","volume":"330","author":"Colaprete","year":"2012","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"262","DOI":"10.1016\/j.icarus.2015.02.026","article-title":"Evolution of the dust and water ice plume components as observed by the LCROSS visible camera and UV-visible spectrometer","volume":"254","author":"Heldmann","year":"2015","journal-title":"Icarus"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"568","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1178658","article-title":"Character and spatial distribution of OH\/H2O on the surface of the Moon seen by M3 on Chandrayaan-1","volume":"326","author":"Pieters","year":"2009","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"565","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1179788","article-title":"Temporal and spatial variability of lunar hydration as observed by the Deep Impact spacecraft","volume":"326","author":"Sunshine","year":"2009","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"562","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1178105","article-title":"Detection of adsorbed water and hydroxyl on the Moon","volume":"326","author":"Clark","year":"2009","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"378","DOI":"10.1038\/nature11216","article-title":"Constraints on the volatile distribution within Shackleton crater at the lunar south pole","volume":"486","author":"Zuber","year":"2012","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Lucey, P.G., Neumann, G.A., Paige, D.A., Riner, M.A., Mazarico, E.M., Smith, D.E., Zuber, M.T., Siegler, M., Hayne, P.O., and Bussey, D.B.J. (2014, January 17\u201321). Evidence for Water Ice and Temperature Dependent Space Weathering at the Lunar Poles from Lola and diviners. Proceedings of the 45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, TX, USA."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Li, S., Lucey, P.G., Milliken, R.E., Hayne, P.O., Fisher, E., Williams, J.P., Hurley, D.M., and Elphic, R.C. (2018). Direct evidence of surface exposed water ice in the lunar polar regions. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 115.","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1802345115"},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Hayne, P.O., Cohen, B.A., Sellar, R.G., Staehle, R., Toomarian, N., and Paige, D.A. (2013, January 14\u201316). Lunar flashlight: Mapping lunar surface volatiles using a cubesat. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, Laurel, MD, USA."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"74","DOI":"10.1016\/j.icarus.2017.03.023","article-title":"Evidence for surface water ice in the lunar polar regions using reflectance measurements from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter and temperature measurements from the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment","volume":"292","author":"Fisher","year":"2017","journal-title":"Icarus"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Smith, D.E., Zuber, M.T., Neumann, G.A., Lemoine, F.G., Mazarico, E., Torrence, M.H., McGarry, J.F., Rowlands, D.D., Head, J.W., and Duxbury, T.H. (2010). Initial observations from the lunar orbiter laser altimeter (LOLA). Geophys. Res. Lett., 37.","DOI":"10.1029\/2010GL043751"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Riris, H., Cavanaugh, J., Sun, X., Liiva, P., Rodriguez, M., and Neuman, G. (2010, January 4\u20138). The lunar orbiter laser altimeter (LOLA) on NASA\u2019s lunar reconnaissance orbiter (LRO) mission. Proceedings of the International Conference on Space Optics, Rhodes Island, Greece.","DOI":"10.1364\/CLEO.2009.CFJ1"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3035","DOI":"10.1364\/AO.48.003035","article-title":"Optical system design and integration of the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter","volume":"48","author":"Scott","year":"2009","journal-title":"Appl. Opt."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"Cohen, B.A., Hayne, P.O., Greenhagen, B.T., Paige, D.A., Camacho, J.M., Crabtree, K., Paine, C.G., and Sellar, R.G. (2017, January 20\u201324). Payload Design for the Lunar Flashlight Mission. Proceedings of the 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, TX, USA."},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"Wehmeier, U., Vinckier, Q., Sellar, R.G., Paine, C.G., Hayne, P.O., Bagheri, M., Rais-Zadeh, M., Forouhar, S., Loveland, J., and Shelton, J. (2018, January 21\u201322). The Lunar Flashlight CubeSat instrument: A compact SWIR laser reflectometer to quantify and map water ice on the surface of the Moon. Proceedings of the SPIE Optical Engineering + Application conference\u2014CubeSats and NanoSats for Remote Sensing II, San Diego, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"Lucey, P.G., Sun, X., Abshire, J.B., and Neumann, G.A. (2014, January 17\u201321). An orbital lidar spectrometer for lunar polar compositions. Proceedings of the 45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, TX, USA."},{"key":"ref_36","unstructured":"Robinson, K.F., and Norris, G. (2017, January 12\u201314). NASA\u2019s Space Launch System: Deep-Space Delivery for Smallsats. Proceedings of the Annual AIAA Space and Astronautics Forum and Exposition, Orlando, FL, USA."},{"key":"ref_37","unstructured":"Clark, P.E., Malphrus, B., Brown, K., Hurford, T., Brambora, C., MacDowall, R., Folta, D., Tsay, M., Brandon, C., and Team, L.I.C. (2016, January 16\u201321). Lunar Ice Cube: Searching for Lunar Volatiles with a lunar cubesat orbiter. Proceedings of the 48th Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences, Pasadena, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_38","unstructured":"Hardgrove, C., Bell, J., Thangavelautham, J., Klesh, A., Starr, R., Colaprete, T., Robinson, M., Drake, D., Johnson, E., and Christian, J. (2015, January 20\u201322). The Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map) mission: Mapping hydrogen distributions in permanently shadowed regions of the Moon\u2019s south pole. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, Columbia, MD, USA."},{"key":"ref_39","unstructured":"(2018, October 03). Lunar Flashlight Propulsion System. Available online: https:\/\/www.cubesat-propulsion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/X16029000-01-data-sheet-080217.pdf."},{"key":"ref_40","unstructured":"Kobayashi, M. (2017, January 5\u201310). Iris Deep-Space Transponder for SLS EM-1 CubeSat Missions. Proceedings of the AIAA\/USU Conference on Small Satellites, Logan, UT, USA."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Vinckier, Q., Crabtree, K., Gibson, M., Smith, C., Wehmeier, U., Hayne, P.O., and Sellar, R.G. (2018, January 5). Optical and mechanical designs of the multi-band SWIR receiver for the Lunar Flashlight CubeSat mission. Proceedings of the SPIE Optical Systems Design conference\u2014Optical Design and Engineering VII, Frankfurt, Germany.","DOI":"10.1117\/12.2302914"},{"key":"ref_42","unstructured":"Vinckier, Q., Hayne, P.O., Martinez-Camacho, J.M., Paine, C., Cohen, B.A., Wehmeier, U.J., and Sellar, R.G. (2018, January 19\u201323). System Performance Modeling of the Lunar Flashlight CubeSat Instrument. Proceedings of the 49th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, TX, USA."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3039","DOI":"10.1029\/JB086iB04p03039","article-title":"Bidirectional reflectance spectroscopy: 1. Theory","volume":"86","author":"Hapke","year":"1981","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth"},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Warren, S.G., and Richard, E.B. (2008). Optical constants of ice from the ultraviolet to the microwave: A revised compilation. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 113.","DOI":"10.1029\/2007JD009744"},{"key":"ref_45","unstructured":"(2018, November 05). NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory\u2014California Institute of Technology: Lunar Flashlight CubeSat Mission, Available online: https:\/\/www.jpl.nasa.gov\/cubesat\/missions\/lunar_flashlight.php."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Harvey, J. (1976). Light Scattering Characteristics of Optical Surfaces. [Ph.D. Thesis, University of Arizona].","DOI":"10.21236\/ADA095132"},{"key":"ref_47","unstructured":"Military Standard 1246C (1994). Product Cleanliness Levels and Contamination Control Program, Technical Report."},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"013402","DOI":"10.1117\/1.OE.51.1.013402","article-title":"Total integrated scatter from surfaces with arbitrary roughness, correlation widths, and incident angles","volume":"51","author":"Harvey","year":"2012","journal-title":"Opt. Eng."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/11\/4\/440\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T12:33:35Z","timestamp":1760186015000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/11\/4\/440"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,20]]},"references-count":48,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,2]]}},"alternative-id":["rs11040440"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs11040440","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2019,2,20]]}}}