The Design of a Spacelab Lidar Facility

Abstract

The LIDAR instrument for active atmospheric top-side sounding will be a facility offering a basic capability over a range of wave-lengths (2000 A to 10.6 μm). The core of the facility is a 1 m class telescope (10–3/10–4 rad FOV) which in early missions will be hard-mounted to a Pallet segment; later missions (1983/84) will see the inclusion of a telescope rocking system for rocking in a plane perpendicular to the velocity vector. Accommodation of a variety of lasers (up to two per flight), with operating wavelengths anywhere in the indicated range, and input power levels up to about 2 kW average will be possible. For the early missions, there may be the possibility of mounting the laser(s) inside the module, with the laser being Pallet-mounted with the telescope for later missions. Various detector systems can be used with the LIDAR, with up to three different units on any one flight: these will be Pallet-mounted with the telescope.

Presented by G. Haskell