| 42 | 42 | || '''24.04.2015''' || '''Kai Weidlich (Airbus DS Optronics)''' || '''BELA - ESA's first Laser Altimeter for Planetary Research[[BR]][[BR]]'''[[BR]]The space-qualified design of a miniaturized laser for the !BepiColombo laser altimeter (BELA) will be presented. It will form an integral part of a larger geodesy and geophysics package on board the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) of the !BepiColombo mission.[[BR]][[BR]]The laser facilitates pulsed operation at 10 Hz repetition rate and at 1064 nm wavelength. The laser design consists of a pair of diode-laser pumped, actively q-switched !Nd:YAG rod oscillators encapsulated into dry synthetic air. The system delivers at least 300 million laser pulses with 50 mJ energy and 5 ns duration. It will be launched in 2016 and, after a six-years cruise, will start recording topographic data from orbital altitudes between 400 km and 1500 km above Mercury's surface. Critical qualification issues of the BELA Laser comprise reliable operation of laser diodes, accurate transmitter-to-receiver alignment, stable pulse energy and stable beam divergence over 300 million laser pulses.[[BR]][[BR]]Starting design work at Carl Zeiss Optronics Oberkochen in 2008 the BELA Laser project was completed at Airbus DS Optronics with flight spare delivery in 2014.[[BR]][[BR]]Talk: German[[BR]]Slides: English[[BR]]Questions: German, English || |
