| Date: | 2007-08-31 00:18:00 | |
| Sender: | Mike Pearlman, Jan McGarry <Carey Noll <carey.noll@nasa.gov>> | |
| Subject: | [SLR-Mail] No. 1595: ILRS Network Support of LRO | |
| Author: | Mike Pearlman, Jan McGarry | |
| Content: | ******************************************************************************** SLR Electronic Mail 2007-08-31 00:18:00 UTC Message No. 1595 ******************************************************************************** Author: Mike Pearlman, Jan McGarry Subject: ILRS Network Support of LRO Dear Colleagues, The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission will dramatically increase our knowledge of the moon. Laser ranging will provide valuable data for this mission in the form of precise ranges to the spacecraft. This will be the first transponder experiment for the ILRS network and the first opportunity to track an artificial satellite that is not Earth-orbiting. The ranging will be uplink only with feedback to the stations through semi-realtime telemetry displayed on a CDDIS Web site (http://lrolr.gsfc.nasa.gov). Requirements for participation include: (1) laser wavelength of 532.2 nm +- 0.1 nm, (2) laser fire rate of no more than 28Hz, and (3) precise timing and recording of the laser fires (accurate to 100 nsec of UTC with better than 200 picosecond resolution). There is also an energy requirement which is given as an energy density at the spacecraft of between 1 and 10 femtoJoules per square centimeter. We will shortly provide a calculator on the Web site so that stations can determine if stations meet the energy density requirements at the spacecraft. This is a very exciting mission and we hope that many ILRS stations will participate in this history-making first transponder experiment. We plan to hold a splinter meeting on LRO participation on Wednesday evening, September 26, in Grasse, in concert with the Fall Laser Workshop. We need stations to support this important precursor to transponder programs to make it a success. Stations that would like to participate in the LRO program should be represented at this meeting as we will discuss operational details and constraints. Others are welcome. This is an opportunity to discuss the these issues and give us your feedback. Please join us. Best regards, Mike Pearlman and Jan McGarry Dr. Michael R. Pearlman Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 60 Garden St. Cambridge MA 02138 tel. (617) 495-7481 fax. (617) 496-0121 e-mail. mpearlman@cfa.harvard.edu From: Carey Noll ******************************************************************************** |