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Old May 7th 10, 09:49 AM posted to sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe,alt.lasers,sci.optics
Christoph Bollig
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Default Reflecting satellites, big business

Hi again,


Skywise wrote in


I agree with your statement of limits except that 'tens of watts' seems to
imply CW, and moonbounces and satellite bounces would probably use strong
short pulses. I think satellite operators would take a dim view of lots of
people firing YAG rangefinder pulses at their satellites though.


Satellite laser ranging (SLR) is done routinely since many years.
There is a network of SLR stations around the world. Some satellites
have retro reflectors mounted to them, exactly for this purpose. This
includes some or all (not sure) of the GPS satellites.

Christoph