Qualification and selection of flight diode lasers for the NuSTAR space mission

Reliability and lifetime of diode lasers is critical to space missions. Rigorous tests were conducted on diode lasers to qualify them to be deployed on the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission. This mission includes a metrology system that is based upon 2 laser diodes. This paper discusses the different laser diode failure mechanisms that can arise, as well as laser diode reliability requirements set forth by the NuSTAR space mission. In addition, the space qualification procedures and results on 120 laser diodes from two different vendors will be presented. Also, the results of an accelerated laser lifetime test of 20 laser diodes, along with the flight laser diode selection process will be described in this paper.