During the Skylab 3 and 4 missions the Skylab spacecraft was illuminated by a low power argon ion and dye laser. The earth laser beacon was studied visually by the astronauts. In addition, they collected 35 mm hand-held color photographs of the beacons. Photographs are shown that were obtained on Skylab 3 and Skylab 4. The imagery collected during the Skylab mission was analyzed to evaluate the utility of beacon lasers as terrestial 'artificial stars' for space navigation. The analyses of the imagery revealed two unusual features of the earth laser beacon: (1) The beacon, even though of a low power (approximately 1 watt), is considerably brighter than any other terrain feature and is readily visible on imagery at a distance in excess of 1500 km (900 miles). (2) Another feature of the beacon is its large size. The typical beacon extends over about 5 resolution areas with a characteristic dimension of about 200 m. (Author)


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    Titel :

    Evaluation of Skylab Earth Laser Beacon Imagery


    Beteiligte:
    K. R. Piech (Autor:in) / J. R. Schott (Autor:in)

    Erscheinungsdatum :

    1975


    Format / Umfang :

    102 pages


    Medientyp :

    Report


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch




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    Piech, K. R. / Schott, J. R. | NTRS | 1975


    Skylab-earth laser-beacon experiment - Results and analysis

    Bufton, J. L. / Caudill, L. O. / Mcgunigal, T. E. et al. | NTRS | 1979


    [Photointerpretation of Skylab Imagery]

    Landgrebe, D. A. | NTRS | 1976


    Photointerpretation of Skylab Imagery

    D. A. Landgrebe | NTIS | 1976


    Use of Skylab S190B Imagery

    R. K. Jain | NTIS | 1975