PRECISION LASER RANGEFINDER SYSTEM DESIGN FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY APPLICATIONS

摘要

Preliminary system design of a pulsed precision ruby laser rangefinder system is presented. The system has potential range resolution of 0.4 cm when atmos¬pheric effects are negligible. The system being proposed for flight testing on the Advanced Technology Laboratory (ATL) consists of a modelocked ruby laser transmitter, course and vernier rangefinder receivers, optical beacon retroreflector tracking system and a network of ATL tracking retroreflectors. Perform¬ance calculations indicate that spacecraft to ground ranging accuracies of 1 to 2 cm can be expected.