Orbital characteristics and launch conditions of a spaceborne lidar system proposed for a Shuttle Spacelab mission are analyzed. Mission design tradeoffs between instrument fields of view, resolutions, orbit groundtrack repetition parameters (Q), and orbital altitudes are shown. In the multi-experiment application of the Spacelab-lidar system, where scene illumination is the key mission parameter for the performance of the lidar instrument, results indicate that selected daytime or nighttime coverage can be programmed into Spacelab lidar missions by a judicious selection of Shuttle launch time. In addition to controlling the location of nighttime measurements, results indicate that, by the proper selection of Shuttle launch time, the magnitude and variability of solar lighting angles can be optimized to fit the requirements of the Spacelab lidar experiments.
Mission analysis for earth atmospheric measurements using a Shuttle-Spacelab lidar system
Astrodynamics Conference ; 1980 ; Danvers, MA
1980-08-01
Conference paper
No indication
English
Lidar concept for an early spacelab mission
Tema Archive | 1977
|NTIS | 1994
NTIS | 1994