上海天文台近红外波长空间碎片激光测距研究进展

Progress of Near Infrared Wavelength Laser Ranging to Space Debris at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory

激光测距技术对空间碎片测量精度最高,是空间碎片碰撞预警最有力的手段之一。针对传统532nm波长空间碎片激光测距面临测量能力瓶颈问题,以及近红外波长激光测距技术优势,上海天文台在国内率先开展了近红外波长(1064nm)空间碎片激光测距技术研究。通过解决近红外波长光束指向监视与瞄准、近红外波长激光回波探测等关键技术,采用1kHz重复率、输出功率8W、1064nm波长激光器,实现了空间碎片测量。通过对测量结果对比分析,验证了1064nm波长激光测距系统探测能力。为开展远距离小尺寸碎片目标、亚分米级精度测量研究,合作研制了1kHz重复率、40W输出功率、1064nm波长激光器系统,进行了高重复率近红外波长空间碎片测距试验,其中对失效铱星目标测距精度达分米级(约9cm),初步验证了该激光器系统性能,为上海天文台开展远距离小尺寸目标空间碎片激光测量以及白天激光测距技术研究奠定了基础。

Debris laser ranging(DLR)is an important way to improve the surveillance and collision prediction for space debris,which can reach the highest measurement precision.There is a performance bottleneck for the traditional 532nm wavelength DLR,while the advantages of near infrared wavelength(1064nm)laser in SLR/DLR have become increasingly prominent.Thus,Shanghai Astronomical Observatory(SHAO)has carried out the research on near infrared wavelength DLR earlier in China.The near infrared wavelength DLR is realized with 1kHz repetition rate and 8W output power when the key technologies of 1064nm DLR have been broken through,such as laser beam pointing monitoring and collimation,laser echo detection and etc.Through the comparative analysis of the measurement results,the detection ability of 8W@1kHz 1064nm DLR system is verified.Moreover,a new 1064nm laser system with 1kHz repetition rate and 40W output power has been jointly developed,aiming at carrying out sub-dm precision measurement for longdistance and small-size targets.Its measurement precision for the disable Iridium reached dm level(about 9cm),which has preliminarily verified the performance of the 40W@1kHz 1064nm laser system,laying the foundation to carry out DLR to long-distance and small-size targets and research on daytime laser ranging technology at SHAO.