The Matera Laser Ranging Observatory FSP-06, Frascati, Italy, March 2006 Giuseppe Bianco Centro di Geodesia Spaziale, ASI – Matera, Italy

SLR concept

LAGEOS

Starlette Stella LAGEOS-I LAGEOS-II Etalon-I & -II GFZ-1 Ajisai Inclination Perigee (km) diameter (cm) mass (kg) 98.6° ° ° 5, ° 5, ° 1, ° ° 19, Geodetic satellites

Lunar targets

Lunar reflectors

Centro di Geodesia Spaziale Giuseppe Colombo Matera, Italy

u Day & night, 1- and 2-color ranging capability to satellites from 400 km orbit to the Moon u Single-shot RMS jitter 5 mm on LAGEOS ( 1 mm NP) 5 mm on Starlette, ERS ( 1 mm NP) 15 mm on Etalon, Glonass ( 3 mm NP) 15 mm on Moon ( 10 mm NP) MLRO specifications u Astronomical quality telescope, 1 pointing accuracy, 1.5 m aperture

TX-RX table

LAGEOS II observations from MLRO Residuals (cm) Number of observations Lageos 2 pass on 98/10/15 pass length = 46 min. number of obs. = return rate = 80% rms= 5.08 mm skewness = 0.17 kurtosis = Lageos 2 pass on 98/10/15 pass length = 46 min. number of obs. = return rate = 80% rms= 5.08 mm skewness = 0.17 kurtosis = -0.13

Ajisai residual analysis

LAGEOS I residual analysis

Time (sec) from the pass start Lageos 2 pass on 29/05/2000 number of obs. = mean = 0.00 mm rms= 5.67 mm Shot-by-shot residuals (mm) LAGEOS II MLRO observations

LAGEOS II residual analysis (October 15, 1998)

LAGEOS II residual analysis (May 29, 2000)

Observed LAGEOS-2 down-spinning rate (exponential fit) Year Rotation Period (s) post-fit RMS 88.5 ms Down-spinning rate: factor of 2 every 1.5 years factor of 10 every 4.9 years Period (s) = 11.1 * e (Year )/ 2.1

MLRO lunar observations

MLRO MM C-MENDES MLRO MM C-MENDES Two color SLR

Differences wrt MLRO DD C-MENDES MM MENDES

Quantum telecommunications

Conclusions u Two-color capable (355 & 532 nm), Moon capable u Ready for other experiments (transponders, quantum, active optics) u Severe funding problems u Millimeter-level single shot precision