A tradeoff investigation for the BepiColombo Laser Altimeter design

Kurt S. Gunderson; Nicolas Thomas; Tilman Spohn; Karsten Seiferlin

doi:10.1117/12.578722

30 December 2004 A tradeoff investigation for the BepiColombo Laser Altimeter design

Kurt S. Gunderson, Nicolas Thomas, Tilman Spohn, Karsten Seiferlin

Proceedings Volume 5660, Instruments, Science, and Methods for Geospace and Planetary Remote Sensing; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.578722
Event: Fourth International Asia-Pacific Environmental Remote Sensing Symposium 2004: Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere, Ocean, Environment, and Space, 2004, Honolulu, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

The BepiColombo Laser Altimeter (BELA) is a proposed experiment for the BepiColombo mission to the planet Mercury. BELA is intended to provide payload-to-surface ranging data from a spacecraft in a polar Hermean orbit by measuring the time-of-flight of outgoing laser pulses and their echoes. As proposed, BELA also will provide small-scale surface variation and reflectivity data via characterization of return pulse forms. Primary instrument components include a low frequency pulsed Nd:YAG laser transmitter and a reflective receiver telescope feeding a silicon avalanche photodiode to capture pulse echoes with a direct detection approach. To assist with the evaluation of various design strategies, we have developed a numerical model of the instrument that returns a signal-to-noise-ratio figure of merit, as well as simulated return pulses, according to a diverse set of hardware specifications and viewing geometries as input parameters. An analysis of large sets of simulated pulses assists with the estimation of measurement accuracy. This model has been used to investigate the performance of a variety of instrument configurations, and some tradeoffs leading to the favored design will be described.

Citation Download Citation

Kurt S. Gunderson, Nicolas Thomas, Tilman Spohn, and Karsten Seiferlin "A tradeoff investigation for the BepiColombo Laser Altimeter design", Proc. SPIE 5660, Instruments, Science, and Methods for Geospace and Planetary Remote Sensing, (30 December 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.578722

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available