UNews - Dr. David Naylor

U of L grad student presents at prestigious photonics conference

caroline.zentner — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 18:06:03 +0000

Only in the second semester of his master’s program with ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge astrophysicist Dr. David Naylor, Adam Christiansen was selected to present at SPIE Photonics West, the world’s largest photonics innovation conference.

Adam Christiansen is working on a laser-interferometer that can withstand the space environment. The U of L's cryogenic test facility shown in the photo replicates a space environment as closely as possible.

“I was excited when I found out I’d been chosen to present,” says Christiansen. “It was nice to know that I was at least doing something that other people considered to be on the right track and worthy of a presentation. I was nervous because everybody there knows a lot, but it ended up going quite well.”

Photonics is the science of light generation, detection and manipulation, commonly involving the application of lasers and fibre optics. Popular photonics research areas include telecommunications, medicine, military and defence, manufacturing and aerospace.

“After four-plus months into his program, it’s exceptional to win a coveted oral spot at this conference,” says Naylor. “Most student presentations are given as posters and Adam was the only student to give a talk in his session.”

In addition, SPIE (Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers) awarded Christiansen with an MKS Instruments Research Excellence Travel Award, a grant that allowed him to attend the recent conference in San Francisco.

The conference draws about 25,000 attendees from all over the world. In addition to technology exhibits that feature the latest in lasers, optics and electronics, participants attend scientific sessions on topics ranging from physics to neuroscience.

Christiansen, a Lethbridge-born, Chinook High School graduate who completed an undergraduate degree in computer and software engineering at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, is working on a component of SAFARI, a far infrared spectrometer and the largest instrument on SPICA (Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics). SPICA, a satellite that will help scientists understand how galaxies form and evolve, is one of three finalists in the European Space Agency’s M5 call for mission proposals.

The SPICA/SAFARI mission is being led by SRON, the Netherlands Institute for Space Research, in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). As a CSA lab, the U of L’s astrophysics lab is a unique facility in Canada that is contributing to and doing testing for SAFARI.

Adam Christiansen, centre back row, was one of a group of students who received MKS awards.

“My research focuses on a subsystem of SAFARI that involves the precise measurement and control of its moving mirror,” says Christiansen. “The challenge with this is that you need to be able to do it in space under cryogenic temperatures, that is 4 Kelvin (–269 C). This kind of thing has been done before in the laboratory but it’s not as straightforward in space.”

The U of L’s cryogenic test facility attempts to replicate the space environment as closely as possible, including the temperature, vacuum environment and realistic vibrations that would be experienced on a spacecraft.

“There have been plenty of previous space missions like this that have had to do this kind of measurement and control and they used various types of sensors to do that—resistive, capacitive and inductive, for example,” says Christiansen. “But never before has a laser-interferometer system like the one that we’re proposing been used in a space application. So, we’re trying to show that this system would be beneficial to use in space, that it’s well suited and can meet the requirements.”

U of L’s space imaging group scores success on two fronts

caroline.zentner — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 16:52:47 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Astronomical Instrumentation Group (AIG) is celebrating two recent victories, one technical and one personal.

From left to right are Dr. Ir. Willem Jellema, senior instrument scientist with SRON; Trevor Fulton, U of L software modeller; Dr. David Naylor, U of L physics professor; Carolien Feenstra, grad student at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Groningen; Ian Veenendaal, U of L doctoral student; Adam Christiansen, U of L grad student, and Rebecca Sirota, U of L electronics technician.

When Ian Veenendaal, a doctoral student studying under physics professor Dr. David Naylor, first started collaborating with the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON) and Cardiff ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ on a Fabry-Pérot etalon (an instrument that measures the wavelengths of light) two years ago, he didn’t imagine it would one day lead to a job offer. As soon as he finishes his PhD thesis, which he expects will be sometime next summer, he’ll become an instrument scientist with SRON.

“It’s like a dream come true,” he says. “My goal since I started in physics was to work with some space agency and it came through.”

Veenendaal was collaborating with SRON on the design of the Fabry-Pérot etalon, which was designed, produced and tested by SRON before being brought to the U of L for testing in the cryogenic testing facility during the last week of November. The etalon had to be cooled to 4 Kelvin and then tested to see if it would operate in such cold temperatures. Turning an instrument on for the first time is called seeing first light and, in this case, the instrument performed exactly as it should.

“There’s nothing like it,” says Veenendaal. “When you see that first little spike in the signal that you expected to see, that your math and computer models tell you should be there, it’s confirmation that the hundreds of pieces of the puzzle fit together properly. There’s both a sense of accomplishment and relief.”

The etalon was accompanied by Dr. Ir. Willem Jellema, a senior instrument scientist and project lead with SRON and assistant professor at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Groningen. He was accompanied by Carolien Feenstra, a master’s student at the university, who started working on the project as an undergraduate.

“It’s the equivalent of a tuning fork, an optical tuning fork,” says Jellema. “The device we built filters out one specific colour of light and rejects all the other ones. That way, by tilting it, we can actually tune selected different colours of light and analyze them at very high fidelity.”

“It’s been a great week,” says Dr. David Naylor, a U of L physics professor. “There’s an army of talented people behind this. It’s been a fantastic collaboration, all funded on our part by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). It’s a really important first. No one has made this kind of etalon before.”

The etalon is roughly five centimetres in diameter and so precisely flat that, if it was expanded to the size of Henderson Lake, the surface from one end to the other would not deviate by more than half a centimetre.

“That was key to the success,” says Jellema. “We had to etch and polish multiple layers of essentially solar-panel material to perfection and there is actually no one who can easily do this. It’s state-of-the-art processing capability at SRON and the NOVA optical infrared group, and maybe even in the world. That’s the expertise we could bring into this project.”

Funding for the collaboration was provided by a CSA Flights and Fieldwork for the Advancement of Science and Technology (FAST) grant and through SPICA-Safari funding from SRON and a Leids Kerkhoven-Bosscha Fonds (LKBF) subsidy from the Leiden Observatory. A member of the FAST collaboration, Professor Peter Ade from the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, provided critical band limiting cryogenic filters.

The device has been a stepping stone to building an even better device that could very well be included in a NASA space mission in the future. It could also eventually fly in the SPICA mission as a calibration source component or as part of a high-altitude balloon project by CNES, the French space agency, above Australia and Canada.

SPICA mission, with major ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge contribution, one step closer to reality

caroline.zentner — Tue, 08 May 2018 18:18:30 +0000

SPICA, the joint mission between the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) to observe the infrared with super sensitive instruments, was named one of three finalists in ESA’s M5 call for mission proposals on Monday, May 7.

“I am impressed about the quality and breadth of the missions proposed for M5. Each of the selected proposals has high scientific value and would ensure a continuation of Europe’s expertise in the fields of planetary science, astrophysics and cosmology,” says Günther Hasinger, ESA Director of Science.

That’s good news for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, which is the lead Canadian institution in the mission, and astrophysicist Dr. David Naylor, who has been involved in the project from its beginning nine years ago.

“We are extremely pleased that SPICA has been named one of the three finalists,” says Naylor. “We felt we had a very strong proposal with a team composed of scientists from all of the three instruments that flew on Herschel. While this decision is not the final goal, it’s a monumental milestone.”

“This is fantastic news for David and his team at the Institute for Space Imaging Science (ISIS),” says Dr. Erasmus Okine, vice-president (research). “The U of L’s involvement in this project demonstrates the strength of our research programs and will provide tremendous opportunities for our students.”

Building on the success of Herschel, the Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) will feature a 3-metre class telescope cooled to less than 8 Kelvin (–265 Celsius) by the use of mechanical coolers. SPICA’s large, cold aperture will provide increased sensitivity in observations at mid- and far-Infrared wavelengths.

While advancements have been made in understanding how the first galaxies and stars formed, the picture is incomplete because the birth of stars, galaxies and planets occurs in areas hidden behind a thick blanket of dust. This dust can be penetrated by infrared spectrometers like SAFARI, which, given the support of the Canadian Space Agency, is the instrument Naylor and his team at ISIS will help to build.

“Most people do not appreciate the time scale of space projects,” says Naylor. “Typically, a space exploration mission will last two decades from cradle to grave and involve hundreds of talented scientists and engineers from many countries and institutions. To be invited to join such exploration missions, one has to bring something unique to the table. In the case of SAFARI, it is Canada’s renowned expertise in Fourier transform spectroscopy that exists both in academia and industry. My group has been continually funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for more than 36 years and this allowed us to do the basic research to address the challenges of launching and operating a spectrometer in space. We are proud to lead Canada into this exciting mission.”

SPICA, led by Dr. Peter Roelfsema of SRON, the Netherlands Institute for Space Research, is expected to launch toward the end of the next decade, around 2028. Almost 20 institutes from 15 countries are participating, each bringing its own expertise and experience. The United States, United Kingdom, Spain and Canada are major contributors. After launching, SPICA will make its way to the L2 Lagrange point, a parking spot in space a million miles away from Earth in the opposite direction of the sun, where it will slip into orbit and get a clear view of deep space. The SPICA mission will have a five-year lifespan.

“Our understanding of the universe is fundamentally going to change,” says Naylor. “Herschel provided our first large scale view of the processes at play in star formation, but these were restricted to our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Since Herschel was launched, advances in detector sensitivity have continued unabated and we now have detectors that are 100 times more sensitive. This sensitivity will allow us to explore a volume of the universe 1,000 times larger. This is a disruptive advance and is the primary reason ESA selected the SPICA mission.”

Because it takes time for light to travel to Earth, astrophysicists want to look as far as possible into space to see the universe as it was in its youth. Since the majority of the light emitted in the universe is detected in the infrared range, a high-resolution spectrometer is required.

“SPICA will provide astronomers access with unfettered access to the mid- and far-infrared spectrum and help answer fundamental questions about the origins of planets, stars and galaxies throughout cosmic time. This is a uniquely human endeavour — to understand the universe and our place in it,” says Naylor.

More information on the SPICA mission is available on the ISIS website.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge receives grant to help train the next generation of space scientists and engineers

caroline.zentner — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 17:06:46 +0000

A proposal developed by Dr. David Naylor of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Astronomical Instrumentation Group (AIG) has won a $500,000 grant from the Canadian Space Agency.

The Flights and Fieldwork for the Advancement of Science and Technology (FAST) grant will allow the U of L to train up-and-coming astronomers and engineers while contributing to Canada’s ability to play leading roles in future space astronomy missions.

Additional support in cash and in kind from the U of L and several industrial partners, including ABB, a global leader in power and automation technologies and one of the main partners in the Solar Impulse plane, the Netherlands Institute for Space Research, QMC Instruments, Zeeko Ltd., and Blue Sky Spectroscopy, bring the total to roughly $1.2 million.

Ian Veenendaal, a doctoral student in Dr. David Naylor's lab, prepares an interferometer for testing in the cryogenic test facility at the U of L. He is one of the students who will benefit from the specialized training available through the Canadian Space Agency grant.

Naylor says more than 90 per cent of the funds will go to training students as they develop a cryogenic Fabry-Pérot interferometer mechanism for Safari, one of the core instruments being planned for SPICA, a space observatory that will orbit around the second Lagrangian point 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. SPICA is a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) expected to be launched in the late 2020s. Because of its super-cooled telescope, SPICA will be more than 100 times more sensitive than the pioneering Herschel Space Observatory.

Instruments being developed for SPICA must operate at extremely cold temperatures and the U of L’s AIG has both the expertise and the cryogenic test facility to develop such instruments.

“Proposals submitted to the FAST program had to demonstrate that the training would take place in a realistic space environment, which could include such things as rocket or balloon launches,” says Naylor. “Since Herschel and SPICA are both cryogenic systems at extremely low temperature, our cryogenic test facility, while it is earth-bound, is the most realistic space environment.

Naylor says once of the strongest drivers for technology development is space exploration and he expects the Fabry-Pérot technology will be used in other space missions.

“This project builds on the legacy of Herschel and paves the way for an even greater contribution to SPICA and other missions on the far infrared roadmaps of NASA and ESA,” says Naylor. “The CSA deserves credit for providing this funding to prepare the next generation of Canadians for opportunities that are on the horizon. The students trained by FAST today will become the mission scientists of tomorrow.”

UNews - Dr. David Naylor

U of L grad student presents at prestigious photonics conference

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