Lena Heffern

My work in the lidar group is concentrated on the mechanical and design aspects of the REAL. My first project dealt with updating previous CAD files to include the new gas fusion mirrors and mounts in the beam steering unit (BSU). My latest project involved making a CAD model of the current configuration of the lidar optics table. I was then added it to a full model of the LIDAR system. The model was used in a poster presentation by Denton Scott.

The figure below shows the BSU solid model with its new mounting system and mirrors. The most challenging part of this model was determining the reference geometry based off of imported parts. An imported part is basically a part that was created by someone else in a different file format, and is hence un-editable and its geometry is tricky to reference.

The figure below shows the full rendering of the LIDAR system. The most difficult part of this project was determining the proper placement of the relatively small optical components on the table top. Models of the container, table, BSU tower, etc., were provided by NCAR.