AAS 97-626

LASER RANGING TARGET CONSIDERATIONS FOR LEO SPACECRAFT

G. Charmaine Gilbreath, P.B. Rolsma, R.A. Kessel and J.A. Georges - Naval Research Laboratory

Abstract

This paper describes the design and analysis required to design a robust retroreflector array configuration for a LEO spacecraft for use in laser radar. The particular configuration is a hemisphere of consisting of 22 one centimeter retroreflectors. Unique in our treatment is bench-level experimental results for measurements of the scaled far-field intensity distribution for an array. Experimental data will be compared to design analysis.