Evaluation of Skylab earth laser beacon imagery

Details Evaluation of Skylab earth laser beacon imagery Evaluation of Skylab earth laser beacon imagery

Mar 1975

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1975calc.rept.....p&link_type=abstract

Final Report Calspan Corp., Buffalo, NY.

Other

Beacons, Lasers, Skylab Program, Spaceborne Photography, Color Photography, Earth (Planet), Light Beams, Space Navigation, Space Perception, Terrain

Scientific paper

During the Skylab 3 and 4 missions the Skylab spacecraft was illuminated by a low power argon ion and dye laser. The earth laser beacon was studied visually by the astronauts. In addition, they collected 35 mm hand-held color photographs of the beacons. Photographs are shown that were obtained on Skylab 3 and Skylab 4. The imagery collected during the Skylab mission was analyzed to evaluate the utility of beacon lasers as terrestial 'artificial stars' for space navigation. The analyses of the imagery revealed two unusual features of the earth laser beacon: (1) The beacon, even though of a low power (approximately 1 watt), is considerably brighter than any other terrain feature and is readily visible on imagery at a distance in excess of 1500 km (900 miles). (2) Another feature of the beacon is its large size. The typical beacon extends over about 5 resolution areas with a characteristic dimension of about 200 m.

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