Power of optical radiation received by a television camera reflected by a retroreflector

What is it about?

In the process of spacecraft docking, the distance between them change widely. Elements of a docking target (retroreflectors) are illuminated by a laser. Wherein the power of light reflecting by retroreflectors changes by many orders of magnitude. The commonly used for calculating the reflected radiation method based on the cross-section of retroreflectors, at distances of up to 1000 m give a very large error. The article proposed to use more accurate reflected radiation calculations based on the theory of diffraction.

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Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Large errors in calculating the reflected energy of optical radiation lead to an inadequate choice of parameters of the optical docking system during its design, which increases the cost of developing and experimentally testing the system.

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