Magazine Article

Coherent Laser Instrument Would Measure Range and Velocity

TBMG-182

02/01/2005

Abstract
Content

A proposed instrument would project a narrow laser beam that would be frequency-modulated with a pseudorandom noise (PN) code for simultaneous measurement of range and velocity along the beam. The instrument performs these functions in a low mass, power, and volume package using a novel combination of established techniques. Originally intended as a low resource-footprint guidance sensor for descent and landing of small spacecraft onto Mars or small bodies (e.g., asteroids), the basic instrument concept also lends itself well to a similar application guiding aircraft (especially, small unmanned aircraft), and to such other applications as ranging of topographical features and measuring velocities of airborne light-scattering particles as wind indicators.

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Citation
"Coherent Laser Instrument Would Measure Range and Velocity," Mobility Engineering, February 1, 2005.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Feb 1, 2005
Product Code
TBMG-182
Content Type
Magazine Article
Language
English