Design of the TP-1B satellite’s laser retro-reflector array and analysis of laser ranging

To meet the highly precise orbit requirements of the Tianping-1B (TP-1B) satellite used for providing equipment calibration, a distributed laser retro-reflector array (LRA) has been designed with a weight of approximately 450 g, an effective reflective area of more than 4.6 cm 2 and a field of view of more than 120° for performing laser ranging and supporting scientific test missions. The LRA consists of two types of cube corner retro-reflectors (CCRs) installed on the ground-facing side of the satellite: one is a nadir-facing CCR, and the other is six CCRs each featuring a 50° structural tilt angle. First, according to the orbital characteristics of the TP-1B satellite, its orbital flight duration has been predicted by the satellite laser ranging (SLR) station. Then, taking into account the spatial distribution of the CCR, the effective reflective area distribution of the LRA has been calculated. Furthermore, considering the additional phase shift caused by the dihedral angle offset of the CCR, as well as surface shape offsets in the reflective and incident planes, the far-field diffraction pattern of the CCRs has been plotted, Meanwhile, based on the laser ranging radar equation and the parameters of the SLR system, the number of laser echoes and laser ranging precision of the TP-1B satellite laser ranging have been calculated. Finally, SLR stations were used to track and perform ranging precision experiments on the TP-1B satellite. The actual measurement results at the SLR station show that the ranging precision is 5.3 mm and the average number of echo photons per second reaches 459. These results are consistent with the previous theoretical calculations and analysis, which further validates the effectiveness of the designed LRA and will guide the design of future LRA.