Holography and laser speckle metrology in the aerospace industries, in-orbit research and planetary investigations in the 21st century

摘要

Review of holographic terrestrial aerospace research and in-orbit holographic investigations performed in microgravity conditions during the last century is given. Terrestrial aerospace research by means of opto-digital laser speckle metrology is considered. The prospects of holographic in-orbit research in the 21st century are regarded. Outlook for holographic research during future interplanetary missions in the 21st century is discussed. Advanced holographic techniques are presented. These innovative techniques suit ideally for monitoring of various physical processes, studying of vibrations and static deformations, testing of microelectronics and MEMS. They enable quite novel possibilities of rapid, elegant, high volume production of holograms and holographic interferograms both in the terrestrial environments (industrial, natural outdoor environments) and in microgravity outside the Earth. Advanced holographic techniques are so simple that their usage in the planetary environments of the future space missions seems quite natural. They can be used right now for holographic research aboard currently orbiting International Space Station. Advanced holographic techniques might be utilized quite soon on Mars. One of the early variants of advanced techniques invented by this author was used to obtain the first ever holograms and holographic interferograms of different physical phenomena outside the Earth aboard navigating spaceships. The unique feature of innovative techniques is the possibility to work in real time in situ. It is possible to obtain holograms and holographic interferogams in any brightly lit environment, including sunlit environments. The last might be very important in the future planetary missions. Holographic minirobot for planet-based investigations is proposed. Quite novel modifications of advanced techniques permit to process holographically tremendous amounts of data per second; far exceeding near future potentialities of sophisticated computer systems applied to the tasks of 3-dimensional imaging or to the tasks of optical metrology. Experimental data properly illustrating novel vast possibilities and prospects for the future in-orbit and interplanetary space research are presented.