A high precision laser altimeter was developed under the Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance (ALHAT) project at NASA Langley Research Center. The laser altimeter provides slant-path range measurements from operational ranges exceeding 30 km that will be used to support surface-relative state estimation and navigation during planetary descent and precision landing. The altimeter uses an advanced time-of-arrival receiver, which produces multiple signal-return range measurements from tens of kilometers with 5 cm precision. The transmitter is eye-safe, simplifying operations and testing on earth. The prototype is fully autonomous, and able to withstand the thermal and mechanical stresses experienced during test flights conducted aboard helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, and Morpheus, a terrestrial rocket-powered vehicle developed by NASA Johnson Space Center. This paper provides an overview of the sensor and presents results obtained during recent field experiments including a helicopter flight test conducted in December 2012 and Morpheus flight tests conducted during March of 2014.


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    Title :

    A Long Distance Laser Altimeter for Terrain Relative Navigation and Spacecraft Landing


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    SPIE (DSS 2014 ) Defense and Security Symposium ; 2014 ; Baltimore, MD, United States


    Publication date :

    2014-05-05


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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