Design and analysis of the light field camera for SurfCam

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute is developing GrainCam as a candidate payload for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). GrainCam is a suite of two light field cameras: one of which is called SurfCam to observe the uppermost regolith on the lunar surface, and the other is LevCam to observe levitating dust over the lunar surface. This paper includes SurfCam's optical design and related analyses. The main goal of SurfCam is to get knowledge of the regolith on the lunar surface and obtain 3D images of the micro-structures through image processing with a micro-lens array (MLA). SurfCam consists of 1 cover glass and 12 spherical lenses. All lenses use space-qualified glass material to carry out a one-lunar-day mission on the moon and are designed to keep the required performance at the operating temperature of -20 ~ +60°𝐶. SurfCam based on the design works will conduct various tests to verify the overall performance through assembly and alignment.