Altimetry, Imaging and Landing Location Selection Lidars for ESA Space Applications

Abstract

Following the successful launch of ADM-Aeolus as well as BepiColombo, European Space Agency has developed the last years a large number of Lidar instrument breadboards to cover a variety of space mission requirements, such as altimetry, imaging, rendezvous and docking as well as landing location selection and precision landing. In order to cover all these mission profiles and requirements, a number of different instruments have been developed ranging from a few watt power consumption to larger systems capable of mapping extraterrestrial objects with high precision from high altitudes. This paper shall present the latest activities on this domain focusing primarily on missions pending launch in the upcoming years.