Computer Science – Performance
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.u21c..05s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #U21C-05
Computer Science
Performance
[5400] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets, [5430] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Interiors, [6250] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Moon, [6297] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Instruments And Techniques
Scientific paper
The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) was turned on for the first time in lunar orbit on July 3, 2009 and has been operating almost continuously since July 13. In the eccentric (~30 km x 200 km) commissioning orbit, LOLA acquired data over the entire southern hemisphere and over part of the northern hemisphere during its first month of operation. During the second month changes to the onboard software enabled the instrument to operate out to near the apoapsis of the commissioning orbit, ~190 km altitude, nearly four times higher than its design specification. LOLA has 5 beams and each illuminates an ~5-m spot on the lunar surface from the 50-km altitude orbit. The instrument successfully tracks on the steepest of slopes (>45 degrees) and is thus well suited for quantitative characterization of rough terrain, such as crater walls and central peaks. The instrument has successfully ranged with each of the two laser transmitters, which operate at 10-cm single-shot precision and at 28 Hz on each of 5 beams. Subsequent to the software changes to optimize performance in the commissioning orbit, the instrument has been collecting of order 3.5 million valid topographic measurements of the southern hemisphere per day with better spatial and vertical resolution than achieved by any other lunar topographic investigation. To attain LRO’s orbit determination requirement, regular ranging from NASA’s Next Generation Satellite Laser Ranging station (NGSLR) is taking place. Analysis of the Earth-based laser ranges to LRO indicates a 48-cm single-shot rms range error, or 24 cm with refined calibration.
Aharonson Oded
Barnouin-Jha Olivier Serge
Cavanaugh John F.
Duxbury Thomas C.
Head James W.
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