Small and lightweight laser retro-reflector arrays for lunar landers
Name
ao-58-33-9259.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
2.46 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
e890c7ec9b855abd4582ab52780b8468
Author(s)
Sun, Xiaoli
Smith, David Edmund
Hoffman, Evan D.
Wake, Shane W.
Cremons, Daniel R.
Mazarico, Erwan
Lauenstein, Jean-Marie
Zuber, Maria T.
Aaron, Edward C.
Date Issued
November 2019
Journal
Applied Optics
Publisher
The Optical Society
Citation
Sun, Xiaolin, David E. Smith, Evan D. Hoffman, Shane W. Wake, Daniel R. Cremons, Erwan Mazarico, Jean-Marie Lauenstein, Maria T. Zuber, and Edward C. Aaron. "Small and lightweight laser retro-reflector arrays for lunar landers." Applied Optics 58, 33 (November 2019): 9259-66 doi 10.1364/AO.58.009259 ©2019
Version
Final published version
Abstract
A set of small and lightweight laser retro-reflector arrays (LRAs) was fabricated and tested for use on lunar landers under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Service program. Each array contains eight 1.27-cm-diameter corner cube retro-reflectors mounted on a dome-shaped aluminum structure. The arrays are 5.0 cm in diameter at the base, 1.6 cm in height, and 20 g in mass. They can be tracked by an orbiting laser altimeter, such as the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, from a distance of a few hundred kilometers or by a landing lidar on future lunar landers. The LRAs demonstrated a diffraction-limited optical performance. They were designed and tested to survive and function on the Moon for decades, well after the lander missions are completed. ©2019
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.58.009259
