The use of lasers for a wide variety of tasks in the application areas of remote sensing, communication, and space operations is emerging as a major factor in the planning for future space missions. Ideas and proposals for various laser beam applications from space platforms are not new. Lasers and the space-age grew up together over the past three decades, and many researchers world-wide have noted the logical combination of technologies. The arrival of laser technology in space has often been delayed, however, by lack of flight opportunities, by funding of the means to get to space rather than the instruments to be carried along, and by a pervasive conservatism in program management that defers to proven technology. Laser devices as a group have also not been ready to withstand the rigors of spaceflight, nor have they had much to contribute to the specific missions constructed around microwave technology and passive electro-optical sensors. What is new as we enter the fourth decade of mankind's advancement into space, is that the tools for successful application of laser technology to the enhancement of space-based activities are almost all in place and there appears to be an increased realization that laser technology may in fact provide fundamental advancements in space-based capabilities.
Lasers in remote sensing, communication, and operations on space platforms
Laser fuer die Fernerkundung, Kommunikation und den Betrieb in Weltraumstationen
1987
12 Seiten, 2 Bilder, 4 Tabellen, 23 Quellen
Conference paper
English
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