The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Laser Rangefinder (NLR) is a bistatic system using a diode pumped Nd:YAG laser and a Dall-Kirkham telescope for a receiver. The NLR is one of a suite of five scientific data gathering instruments on the NEAR spacecraft. The NLR receiver is sensitive to incident IR radiation (1064 nm) and can detect return signals from the asteroid as low as 0.1 fJ per pulse, which corresponds to an average power of 9 nW (10 ns pulse). The design, development,a nd testing of the receiver will be discussed in this paper. Technological legacies from other space based programs were significant in meeting the schedule and cost requirements of a Discovery series program and will be discussed herein. Finally, the development of a cost effective, low impact, Level 50 clean area (pivotal in achieving the required environment for integration and test) will be presented.

Date Published: 26 June 1996
PDF: 17 pages
Proc. SPIE 2748, Laser Radar Technology and Applications, (26 June 1996); doi: 10.1117/12.243549

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2748:
Laser Radar Technology and Applications
Gary W. Kamerman, Editor(s)