Theoretical analysis of laser retro-reflectors and experiment of laser ranging for HY-2 satellites

As a passive optical cooperative target, the laser retro-reflector is an important part of the laser ranging system. The laser retro-reflector for low earth orbit satellites, provides services in large laser incident angle range, and need to ensure that the error introduced by array structure must be controlled in a certain range. In order to ensure the high precision of laser ranging, most of laser retro-reflectors array structure are hemispherical. In this paper, taking HY-2 satellite laser retro-reflector as an example, the main technical parameters, such as the far-field diffraction distribution, relative effective reflection area distribution, distance correction error distribution and comprehensive precision of laser ranging were analyzed theoretically. The civil TROS1000 mobile satellite laser ranging system was uesd to HY-2 satellite laser retro-feflector, completing laser ranging experiment. The measurement results show that laser ranging accuracy is 1.1 cm, theoretical analysis accords with the experimental results. It marks that the laser retro-reflector of HY-2 satellite has excellent performance and has guiding significance for the future design of laser satellite retro-reflector.