Spaceborne laser radar.
Laser radar systems are being developed to acquire and track targets in applications such as the rendezvous and docking of two spacecraft. To search effectively for and locate a target using a narrow laser beam, a scanning system is needed. This paper describes a scan technique whereby a narrow laser beam is synchronously scanned with an equally narrow receiver field-of-view without the aid of mechanical gimbals. Equations are developed in order to examine the maximum acquisition and tracking rates, and the maximum target range for a scanning laser radar system. A recently built prototype of a small, lightweight, low-power-consuming scanning laser radar is described.
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