PN1B微小卫星激光反射器设计及激光测距试验

Design of laser retro-reflectors and experiment of laser ranging for PN1B satellite

大气密度探测实验卫星PN1B于2015年9月在太原卫星发射中心成功发射,为了实现对该卫星星载GPS定轨数据提供检核标准及高精度测轨应用要求,依据卫星无法提供阵列结构激光反射器所需要的安装面积的限制,首次采用通光口径为10mm的微小激光反射器按照不同的指向分布在卫星的棱边。利用TROS1000流动人卫激光测距系统对该卫星进行追踪和激光测距试验,测量结果表明激光回波数据充足,每秒平均激光回波光子数达173个,标志着此类微小激光反射器的应用将会在卫星轨道精密定轨方面发挥重要作用。

PN1Bexperimental satellite is an initiative project of China aiming at thermosphere density detection,which has been successfully launched into outer space from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in September,2015.In order to satisfy the inspection standard and high precision measurement application requirements for the satellite GPS orbit determination data,and according to fact that the satellite could not provide the required installation area for the array structure of laser reflectors,PN1 B satellite is equipped with multiple small（10mm）cube prisms for satellite laser ranging.After sending the satellite into orbit,the TROS1000 mobile satellite laser ranging system was used for the tracking and laser ranging experiments.The measurement results show that the laser echo data are enough,the average number of photons per second laser echo is as high as 173,marking such small laser reflectors as the cube prisms will play an important role in the application of precise orbit determination.