Laser Ranging Capability as Affected by System Pointing Error

This paper discusses the interrelationships among the ranging capability of a laser ranging system, the beamwidth of the transmitter, and the system pointing error. Since, in general, the system pointing error is statistical, the probability of successful ranging can be determined by means of these interrelationships, as is illustrated in a detailed analysis of a laser ranging system in which a gimbaled mirror is employed as an optical relay.     

提高深空异步激光测距精度方法研究

异步激光测距的作用距离远,有望实现对地球同步轨道以及深空航天器的精确测量。在对相关文献深入研究的基础上,全面分析了异步激光测距基本原理,对其钟差和测距公式进行了重新推导,提出了一种适用于深空异步激光测距的精确公式,并给出了迭代求解方法。通过理论仿真分析,在脉冲时间测量误差5ns时,对匀速飞行目标,该方法距离测量精度可达到5～6m,比其他方法高出2～3个数量级。     

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Laser Ranging Investigation

The objective of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Laser Ranging (LR) system is to collect precise measurements of range that allow the spacecraft to achieve its requirement for precision orbit determination. The LR will make one-way range measurements via laser pulse time-of-flight from Earth to LRO, and will determine the position of the spacecraft at a sub-meter level with respect to ground stations on Earth and the center of mass of the Moon. Ranging will occur whenever LRO is visible in the line of sight from participating Earth ground tracking stations. The LR consists of two primary components, a flight system and ground system. The flight system consists of a small receiver telescope mounted on the LRO high-gain antenna that captures the uplinked laser signal, and a fiber optic cable that routes the signal to the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) instrument on LRO. The LOLA instrument receiver records the time of the laser signal based on an ultrastable crystal oscillator, and provides the information to the onboard LRO data system for storage and/or transmittal to the ground through the spacecraft radio frequency link. The LR ground system consists of a network of satellite laser ranging stations, a data reception and distribution facility, and the LOLA Science Operations Center. LR measurements will enable the determination of a three-dimensional geodetic grid for the Moon based on the precise seleno-location of ground spots from LOLA.     

Bandwidth maximization for satellite laser communication

Free space optical communication between satellites networked together can make possible high speed communication between different places on Earth. The basic free space optical communication network includes at least two satellites. In order to communicate between them, the transmitter satellite must track the beacon of the receiver satellite and point the information optical beam in its direction. The pointing systems for laser satellite communication suffer during tracking from vibration due to electronic noise, background radiation from interstellar objects such as Sun, Moon, Earth, and Stars in the tracking field of view, and mechanical impact from satellite internal and external sources. Due to vibrations the receiver receives less power. This effect limits the system bandwidth for given bit error rate (BER). In this research we derive an algorithm to maximize the communication system bandwidth using the transmitter telescope gain as a free variable based on the vibration statistics model and the system parameters. Our model makes it possible to adapt the bandwidth and transmitter gain to change of vibration amplitude. We also present an example of a practical satellite network which includes a direct detection receiver with an optical amplifier. A bandwidth improvement of three orders of magnitude is achieved in this example for certain conditions, as compared with an unoptimized system     

A Precise Optical Instrumentation Radar

An instrumentation tracker is described which provides real-time positional data on high-speed cooperative targets with precisions of ±1 m at ranges between 300 m and 10 km. Unambiguous range is determined by a precise digital FM-CW ranging technique at a rate of 15 per second. A target-mounted beacon and a narrow laser ranging beam permit measurement of target position to values much less than target dimension. Azimuth and elevation angles are read out by precision shaft angle encoders and recorded in binary form, along with range and time, on magnetic tape or directly into a real-time computer.     

The Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Laser Altimeter

In 1999 after a 3-year transit, the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft will enter a low-altitude orbit around the asteroid, 433 Eros. Onboard the spacecraft, five facility instruments will operate continuously during the planned one-year orbit at Eros. One of these instruments, the NEAR Laser Rangefinder (NLR), will provide sufficiently high resolution and accurate topographical profiles that when combined with gravity estimates will result with quantitative insight into the internal structure, rotational dynamics, and evolution of Eros. Developed at the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), the NLR instrument is a direct-detection laser radar using a bistatic arrangement. The transmitter is a gallium arsenide (GaAs) diode-pumped Cr:Nd:YAG (1.064-µm) laser and the separate receiver uses an extended infrared performance avalanche-photodiode (APD) detector with 7.62-cm clear aperture Dall–Kirkham telescope. The lithium-niobate (LiNbO3) Q-switched transmitter emits 15-ns pulses at 15.3 mJ pulse^-1, permitting reliable NLR operation beyond the required 50-km altitude. With orbital velocity of 5 m s^-1 and a sampling rate of 1 Hz, the NLR spot size provides high spatial sampling of Eros along the orbital direction. Cross-track sampling, determined by the specific orbital geometry with Eros, defines the resolution of the global topographic model; this spacing is expected to be <500 m on the asteroid's surface. Combining the various sources of range errors results with an overall range accuracy of 6 m with respect to Eros' center-of-mass. The NLR instrument design, perfomance, and validation testing is decribed. In addition, data derived from the NLR are discussed. Using altimetry data from the NLR, we expect to estimate the volume of 433 Eros to 0.01% and its mass to 0.0001% accuracies; significantly greater accuracies than ever possible before NEAR.     

双基地及其联网系统的定位方法及精度分析

讨论的双基地系统中,发射站只起照射目标的作用,而接收站测量距离和、方位角及俯仰角。分析了双基地系统的目标定位方法和定位误差。通过分析定位精度在受控区域内的分布,提示了双基地系统的定位性能。文中对组网双基地系统的定位处理方法进行了讨论,其中采用WLS(Weighted Least Square)算法进行数据融合处理,仿真结果表明,联网双基地系统的定位精度大有提高。     

吸气式激光推力器速度与高度耦合特性的数值研究

使用基于有限体积法和分区结构化网格划分的高分辨率数值方法,计算得到了两种吸气模式激光推力器模型在加速度为10 m/s2的发射过程中,其冲量耦合系数随海拔高度的变化规律。不考虑来流速度和空气补充时,高度特性计算结果与实验吻合得很好。结果表明:推力器与空气具有相对速度时,冲量耦合系数整体明显减小,导致激光推进单级入轨发射由吸气模式向火箭模式的切换点由目前预测的20~30 km明显下移至10~20 km;经过进气道增压处理后,冲量耦合系数大幅度提高,为了增大吸气模式的工作高度范围,进气道设计是必不可少的关键技术之一。     

Distributed Airborne Array Concepts

The improvement in SNR and detection range due to distributing an antenna array throughout the airframe and skin of an aircraft is examined. SNR formulas for three system configurations are presented and compared with that of a conventional, monostatic radar. Examples given in the paper show detection range increases as large as a factor of 4. Three additional potential advantages of the distributed array are an increase in spatial signal processing capability, an improvement in azimuthal resolution, and a potential reduction in transmitter power for fixed radar Performance so as to reduce the probability of intercept.     

Position error bound for UWB localization in dense cluttered environments

For most outdoor applications, systems such as global positioning system (GPS) provide users with accurate location estimates. However, similar range-only localization techniques in dense cluttered environments typically lack accuracy and reliability due, notably, to dense multipath, line-of-sight (LOS) blockage and excess propagation delays through materials. In particular, range measurements between a receiver and a transmitter are often positively biased. Furthermore, the quality of the range measurement degrades with distance, and the geometric configuration of the beacons also affects the localization accuracy. In this paper we derive a fundamental limit of localization accuracy for an ultrawide bandwidth (UWB) system operating in such environments, which we call the position error bound (PEB). The impact of different ranging estimation errors due to beacons distance and biases on the best positioning accuracy is investigated. The statistical characterization of biases coming from measurement campaigns can easily be incorporated into this analysis. We show that the relative importance of information coming from different beacons varies depending on the propagation conditions, such as whether the beacon is LOS or non-line-of-sight (NLOS). We show, in particular, that any a priori information knowledge on NLOS beacons can significantly improve the localization accuracy, especially in dense cluttered environments. Finally we put forth the concept of localization outage probability and epsi-localization accuracy outage, and use them to characterize the quality of localization throughout the area.     

白天激光漫反射测距中微弱信号检测的单开门多触发方法

白天激光漫反射测距因存在强背景噪声,导致微弱回波信号的检测十分困难,严重限制了激光漫反射测距的广泛应用。因此,提出了采用单开门多触发方法解决白天激光漫反射测距的微弱信号检测难题。首先,介绍了一种GM-APD (Geiger-ModeAvalanchePhotoDiode,盖革模式雪崩光电二极管)多触发概率分布函数的快速求解方法。接着,取激光漫反射测距系统典型参数,理论分析了多触发情况下的回波信号检测概率,分析结果表明单开门多触发方法可提高激光漫反射测距在白天情况下的回波信号检测概率。同时,通过对触发次数限制的优选,可以增加有效检测比,减少白天观测条件下回波信号的提取代价。最终,通过系统仿真验证了理论分析结果的正确性。因此,单开门多触发方法是解决白天激光漫反射测距微弱信号检测的可行途径之一。     

Error Analysis for Relay Type Satellite-Aided Search and Rescue Systems

An analysis is made of the errors in the determination of the position of an emergency transmitter in a satellite-aided search and rescue system. The satellite is assumed to be at a height of 820 km in a near-circular near polar orbit. Short data spans of four minutes or less are used. The error sources considered are measurement noise, transmitter frequency drift, ionospheric effects, and error in the assumed height of the transmitter. The errors are calculated for several different transmitter positions, data rates, and data spans. The only transmitter frequency used was 406 MHz, but the result can be scaled to different frequencies.     

基于相频约束的航天器定时技术

双向相干测距测速体制是最常用的航天器测量体制,是一种闭环体制.与之相比较,开环测距测速可以在信号更微弱的情况下获取到观测量,在深空任务中有着独特的意义.然而,开环测距也面临棘手的技术难题——高精度航天器定时技术.针对该难题,在保持现有航天器信号体制的基础上,阐述了基于遥测信号和测距侧音信号（差分单向测距DOR信号可看作侧音信号）间相频约束的航天器定时原理,研究了侧音频率最优化设计方法,给出了“器上发射测站接收”的初步实现方案,为后续开展工程应用奠定了基础.     

A Dual Scan Acquisition Technique for a Laser Communication System

A dual scan acquisition system is described in which both the transmitter and the receiver optics scan, although at different frequencies. The condition where only one station scans appears as a special case of the general approach. Curves of acquisition time versus various parameters are calculated. The effect of range is also discussed.     

The White Sands Range and Range-Rate System

This paper discusses the concept, design, and design verification of the White Sands Range and Range-Rate System. Development of the system has been completed only through the design phase. The system is designed to meet requirements for high-accuracy midcourse tracking under severe target dynamics at the White Sands Missile Range. It is a multistatic Doppler and range tracker which operates at X band and incorporates transmitter, transponder, receiver, and baseline subsystems. The transmitter includes specially designed digital circuitry to synthesize test signals for target simulation during checkout of the system. The transponder signal is processed by a receiver which has been established theoretically to be the optimum realizable processor of continuous tracking data. The receiver incorporates specially designed carrier acquisition circuitry and digital VCO, and directly provides digital Doppler and tone phase data to facilitate real-time processing. The system utilizes data from other tracking systems at the Range for spatial acquisition, for aiding carrier acquisition in the receiver, and for resolving range ambiguities.     

利用有限域上二元多项式构造带仲裁的认证码

在传统的无条件安全认证码中,假定发方和收方是相互信任的,他们不会互相欺骗。但有些情况也可能不是这样,发方在发出一个消息后,不承认是他发的,收方捏造了一个消息,声称来自发方,在这种情况下就需要增添仲裁方。带仲裁的认证码能解决通信系统中发方与收方互不信任的问题。利用有限域上二元多项式构造了一个带仲裁的认证码,并计算了所构造码的参数。当编码规则按等概率分布选取时,计算出了敌方与收方成功模仿攻击和成功替换攻击的最大概率．以及发方成功模仿攻击的最大概率。     

Effect of Particular Gain Changes upon LFM Sidelobes

The envelope variation of an LFM waveform due to transmitter droop or receiver STC tends to cause range sidelobes. A parametric analysis of the magnitude of the sidelobes has been performed. It is shown that the sidelobes can be quite high at the matched filter output, but are low at the output of the sidelobe reduction filter. 40-dB sidelobes can be achieved even with a 4-dB envelope droop. It is shown that these results are consistent with conventional paired-echo theory. Similar results are shown to hold for droop variations of the filter transfer function.     

Potential interference sources to GPS and solutions appropriate forapplications to civil aviation

When the GPS (Global Positioning System) is subjected to interference, the system performance gradually deteriorates as the interfering levels increase. Two modes of interference are discussed in detail, namely, that from transmissions at frequencies close to the GPS frequencies and that from transmissions with a harmonic in the GPS band. It is argued that the former requires RF filtering in the receiver with a quality better than that generally specified. The latter cannot be dealt with in such a way. Measurements carried out on the harmonic levels transmitted by one UK TV transmitter and several hundred aircraft VHF transmitters are reported. The measurements show there is a measurable level of harmonics in the GPS band. The UK TV transmitter does not, however, represent a threat to aviation unless the aircraft is so close as to represent a physical danger. The probability that one aircraft's VHF transmitter will interfere with the GPS receiver on another aircraft is tolerably small, but there is a significant probability that a GPS receiver can suffer when there is a VHF transmission from the same aircraft. Several recommendations are made, including an international effort to ensure that spurious emissions are both quantified and kept at a level significantly lower than that achieved today     

Three-Axes Attitude Determination of Spacecraft Using a Laser

A new method for attitude determination of spacecraft is proposed. The distinctive feature of this method is the ability to determine with high accuracy three elementary angles of the attitude by detection of the electromagnetic wave transmission from a single point. The system consists of a transmitter of a linearly polarized laser beam on the earth (or spacecraft) and receiving equipment on a relevant spacecraft. When the system is used for geosynchronous satellites, the possible accuracies of determination are 10-4 rad or higher for the angles which correspond to roll and pitch, and 10-2 rad or higher for the angle which corresponds to yaw, with the period of 1 s. The system margin for atmospheric attenuation is estimated to be about 50 dB (midnight) to about 20 dB (midday) on the basis of commercially available components. Consequently, it becomes possible to orient antennas or detectors toward arbitrary points around the laser transmitting point on the earth with a high pointing accuracy.