SIOS (Space Integrated Optical Sensors)

航天器需要感官。他们需要能够看到彼此，他们所在的星球，他们的母舰，小行星和碎片，他们在那里研究(例如地球)。未来的航天器还需要智能和自主--能够在没有地球直接指令的情况下执行复杂的任务，而地球可能是很远的(指令有很长的时间滞后)。未来的卫星可能会更小、更轻，并以小组形式运行来完成任务。像达尔文和丽莎这样的人将使用小卫星小组来探索宇宙，探测遥远太阳系中的行星和生命，搜索引力波和大爆炸的残余物，以及未来访问火星和其他行星(并返回)的任务。他们将比以往任何时候都需要更好的感官。问题是，目前提供感官的仪器太大、太重、太慢、太耗电。答案在于制造新的智能光学传感器，它将纳米电子和光学传感器混合在同一个硅芯片上。这些iOS传感器可以用来建造比以往任何时候都更智能、更快的光学传感器，并将使航天器能够看到3维空间，看到物体的运动和化学物质的特征。这些新的传感器可以在比现有系统更小、更轻、更低功率的情况下完成所有这些任务。它们也更简单、更坚固。该项目将为未来的太空任务开发这些传感器，同时开发用于地球上的传感器，它们的应用包括：水下视觉、外科手术中的组织和血液流动成像、活细胞内的工作原理成像、3D视觉以及更多的科学和工业应用。

Space vehicles need senses. They need to be able to see each other, the planet they are above, their mother ship, asteroids and debris and they are there to study (eg the earth).Future spacecraft will also need to be smart and autonomous - able to carry out their complex missions without direct instruction from the earth which may be a long distance away (with a long time lag for instructions). Future satellites may also be smaller, lighter and operate in groups to accomplish their tasks.Missions like DARWIN and LISA will use small groups of satellites to probe the universe, detect planets and life in distance solar systems, search for gravity waves and the remnants from the big bang and future missions to visit Mars and other planets (and return) They will need better senses than ever before.The problem is that at present the instruments that provide the senses are too big, too heavy, too slow and too power hungry. The answer lies in making new smart optical sensors which mix nanoelectronics and optical sensors on the same silicon chip. These IOS sensors can be used to build smarter, faster optical sensors than ever before and will allow the spacecraft to see in 3 dimensions, to see the movement of things and to see the signatures of chemicals. These new sensors can do all this while being much smaller, lighter and lower power than the existing systems. They are also simpler and more robust.This project will develop these sensors for future space missions and at the same time develop sensors for use here on earth where they have applications including: underwater vision, imaging tissue and blood flow during surgery, imaging the workings inside living cells, 3D vision, and many more scientific and industrial applications.