Lidar to Weather Balloon Profile Comparison for Support of Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle Landings

摘要

A comparison study by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Dryden FlightResearch Center, Edwards, CA and the Naval Post Graduate School Center for InterdisciplinaryRemotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies, Marina, CA was conducted to show the advantages of anairborne wind profiling lidar system in reducing drift uncertainty along a reentry vehicle descenttrajectory. This effort was in support of the once planned Orion Crew Exploration Vehicleground landing. A Twin Otter Doppler Wind Lidar was flown on multiple flights along theapproximate ground track of an ascending weather balloons launched from the Marina MunicipalAirport. The airborne lidar used was a 5-milli-Joules, 2-micron infrared laser with a 10-centimeter telescope and a two-axis scanner. Each lidar wind profile contains data for an altituderange between the surface and flight altitude of 2,700 meters, processed on board every 20seconds.