Optical design and testing of a remote microscope

Microscopic imaging systems currently used on planetary exploration rovers operate over a short range, are dependent on ambient lighting and have a constrained depth of field requiring image stacking and increasing the data download requirement. The Structured Light Imaging Module Remote Microscope illuminates a target with acousto-optic generated traveling-wave sinusoidal patterns to measure the Fourier components of the object. It can resolve ~10 μm features at a distance of 5 meters with a ~20 mm depth of field enabling a rover to evaluate remote targets for further study. In this paper we present the optical and mechanical design, and initial characterization of the first to-scale SLIM-RM prototype.