CENTER-OF-MASS CORRECTION OF THE SATELLITE AJISAI

摘要

The center--of--mass correction of the Japanese geodetic satellite Ajisai is studied through simulation. The optical response is precisely modeled simulating the material and the shape of the satellite's corner cubereflectors. Due to the large size of the satellite, the retro--reflected pulse becomes broadened and our model predicts a 28 mm difference in the center--of--mass correction between a typical multi--photon system and atypical single-photon system. The Keystone laser ranging system uses a p hotomultiplier and an avalanche diode, both of which can be operated simultaneously, so the system can potentially detect the difference.