Laser Camera System
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The Laser Camera System (LCS) is an instrumentation device developed by Neptec Design Group, a Canadian firm, to perform 3D inspection of NASA's Space Shuttles while in orbit. The LCS is designed to detect damage to the thermal protection system (TPS), which protects the space shuttle during re-entry. Damage to the TPS resulted in the destruction of Space Shuttle Columbia.
The LCS is attached to the Orbiter Boom Sensor System, a long boom that provides additional reach for the Remote Manipulator System, or Canadarm, which is attached to the shuttle.
The camera system was the first mission-critical piece of equipment that used a processor mounted on ball grid array chip carrier. While the technology of assembling microprocessors to printed circuit boards (PCB) has been in use for a number of years, this was the first time it was used in a manned space mission on a critical piece of equipment.
NASA conducted extensive research to ensure the safety of using a ball grid array package, and one of those boards produced was 20 layers thick. Special thermal planes were used on the PCBs to deal with the problems of dissipating heat in space.
