Fiber optic gyroscope For 6 component planetary seismology
Planetary seismology is a key technique for imaging the internal structure of planetary objects. It targets some of the most fundamental science objectives, from the formation of planetary systems to the characterization of habitable worlds. However, standard methods suffer from various limitations inherent to planetary missions, first one being that a single station is much easier to settle than an array. Taking benefit of the latest developments in so called "rotational seismology" it appears that a single instrument able to monitor both translations and rotations of planetary surfaces would be a game changer in planetary seismology. Indeed, in addition to perform both seismology and global rotational monitoring of the planetary object, the measurement of 6 Degrees of Freedom (DoF) brings a significantly increased scientific return compared to classical 3 DoF sensors. Hence, to enter a new realm of planetary exploration with an innovative ground motion instrumentation concept relying on high precision sensors based on optical interferometry, a project named PIONEERS has been submitted (April 2018) and accepted (July 2018) by European Commission through its H2020 program. Under the leadership of ISAE SUPAERO, gathering IPGP, ETH Z, Royal Observatory of Belgium, LMU and iXblue, the PIONEERS team aims to develop two innovative 6 Dof instruments for measuring ground deformation on planetary objects. The first instrument is a prototype of very low noise 6 Dof sensor dedicated to the imaging of the internal structure of terrestrial planets. The second one is a high TRL CubeSat version of the same instrument concept for exploration of small bodies.
International Conference on Space Optics