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  • Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics
  • OSA Technical Digest (Optica Publishing Group, 2002),
  • paper CWN1

Solid-State Lasers for Space-Based Applications

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Abstract

Solid-state lasers have been in use in the space program from the early stages. Few people are aware, but the Apollo missions 15,15 and 17 employed a Q-switched Ruby laser altimeter to help calibrate lunar photos as well as map the topography of the Moon.1 The laser had only been invented a decade earlier but already advantages of this new light source were apparent to the space and science community. Work on space laser progressed slowly until the mid-80’s when the SDI- era missions were being conceived. There were two fight demonstrations of laser radar technology, Delta-183 and Delta-Star, utilizing flashlamp pumped Nd:YAG lasers on short lived missions.

© 2002 Optical Society of America

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