An asynchronous laser transponder experiment in deep space using MESSENGER's Mercury Laser Altimeter

Details An asynchronous laser transponder experiment in deep space using MESSENGER's Mercury Laser Altimeter An asynchronous laser transponder experiment in deep space using MESSENGER's Mercury Laser Altimeter

Dec 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005agufm.g51a0808n&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2005, abstract #G51A-0808

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1240 Satellite Geodesy: Results (6929, 7215, 7230, 7240), 1294 Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

The Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) aboard the MErcury Surface, Space Environment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft ranged to Earth as part of its in-flight calibration activities, while NASA's Goddard Geophysical Astronomical Observatory (GGAO) fired laser pulses at MLA. On two separate afternoons, while MESSENGER was visible above the horizon at a distance of 24 million km, trains of 16 and 25 consecutive pulses were detected at GGAO with inter-arrival times matching those transmitted by MLA, while on one afternoon, 90 pulses from GGAO were detected by MLA during a 30 minute time span. A linear fit to the MLA pulse time-of-flight revealed a 4.154 km/s Doppler shift in the nominal 8-Hz firing rate, with the majority of pulse centroid times fit to within 300 ps, or less than 10 cm in range, and for the extended but weaker detections at MESSENGER, the majority could be fit by a quadratic curve within 2.5 ns. The ability to make such precise measurements, together with MESSENGER's stable on-board clock, allows a solution with formal covariances for two-way range, range-rate, and acceleration, as well as clock parameters. We discuss the implications of this calibration experiment for the measurement of orbital and geodetic parameters via asynchronous laser ranging.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

An asynchronous laser transponder experiment in deep space using MESSENGER's Mercury Laser Altimeter does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with An asynchronous laser transponder experiment in deep space using MESSENGER's Mercury Laser Altimeter, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and An asynchronous laser transponder experiment in deep space using MESSENGER's Mercury Laser Altimeter will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-747387