Abstract
Solid-state lasers have been in use in the space program from the early stages. Few people are aware, but the Apollo missions 15,15 and 17 employed a Q-switched Ruby laser altimeter to help calibrate lunar photos as well as map the topography of the Moon.1 The laser had only been invented a decade earlier but already advantages of this new light source were apparent to the space and science community. Work on space laser progressed slowly until the mid-80’s when the SDI- era missions were being conceived. There were two fight demonstrations of laser radar technology, Delta-183 and Delta-Star, utilizing flashlamp pumped Nd:YAG lasers on short lived missions.
© 2002 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
Xiaoli Sun
JW3C.5 CLEO: Applications and Technology (CLEO:A&T) 2012
Anthony W. Yu
AIMA2 Applied Industrial Optics: Spectroscopy, Imaging and Metrology (AIO) 2011
Bhabana Pati and Kenneth Stebbins
AW3H.5 CLEO: Applications and Technology (CLEO:A&T) 2023