Optical response of the H2A-LRE satellite

摘要

We designed the arrangement of the corner cube reflectors to be carried on the H2A-LRE satellite. There are 126 reflectors on its quasi-spherical surface; 66 are made of fused silica and the others are made of BK7 glass. Fused silica remains active for more than a few decades, while BK7 degrades in a short time. The reflectors are arranged on the body faces so that the satellite can respond most angles of incidence and so that the optical response does not change significantly after the BK7 reflectors degrade. The optical response from the H2A-LRE satellite was simulated based on the measured position of all its reflectors. The centre-of-mass corrections for multi-photon systems were calculated at 215.3 mm while the BK7 was active and at 210.5 mm after it totally degraded. For single-photon systems, the corrections were 208.5 mm before degradation and 204.7 mm after degradation.