Optical system design and integration of the mercury laser altimeter

Luis Ramos-Lzquierdo; V Stanley Scott 3rd; Stephen Schmidt; Jamie Britt; William Mamakos; Raymond Trunzo; John Cavanaugh; Roger Miller

doi:10.1364/ao.44.001748

Optical system design and integration of the mercury laser altimeter

Appl Opt. 2005 Mar 20;44(9):1748-60. doi: 10.1364/ao.44.001748.

Authors

Luis Ramos-Lzquierdo¹, V Stanley Scott 3rd, Stephen Schmidt, Jamie Britt, William Mamakos, Raymond Trunzo, John Cavanaugh, Roger Miller

Affiliation

¹ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA. Lramos@pop900.gsfc.nasa.gov

PMID: 15813279
DOI: 10.1364/ao.44.001748

Abstract

The Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA), developed for the 2004 MESSENGER mission to Mercury, is designed to measure the planet's topography by laser ranging. A description of the MLA optical system and its measured optical performance during instrument-level and spacecraft-level integration and testing are presented.