Demonstration of an Interferometric Laser Ranging System for a Follow-On Gravity Mission to GRACE

Abstract

NASA's Earth Science Technology office has funded an effort to advance the technology of interferometric ranging in Low Earth Orbit. The goal of this work is to reduce risk for a follow-on gravity mission to the gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE) by demonstrating performance of a heterodyne interferometric laser ranging instrument appropriate for a follow-on gravity mission to GRACE at the NASA Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6, with traceability to the ranging error budget of a strawman flight design of the interferometric ranging system.