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**Jeff Findley[_2_]** · May 29th 12, 02:13 PM posted to sci.space.policy,sci.space.station

In article id,
lid says...

In sci.space.policy message -
september.org, Fri, 25 May 2012 08:58:01, Jeff Findley
posted:

In article , says...

Jeff Findley writes:

The live audio says that the LIDAR picked up a "stray" return from a
reflector on the JEM module. The reflector in question is not one which
Dragon is supposed to be "looking at".

Sounds like a classic "integration problem" which cropped up
unexpectedly.

Someone should go out and put some black tape over the bloody thing ;-)

That would be a good hardware solution, but a software solution should
be faster to implement. ;-)

The next Dragon should have a paint-gun g.

More seriously, rather than relying on reflectors, include modulated
light sources on the target - essentially laser pointers, modulated to
be unmistakable, with beam-spreaders, and the reflectors around them.
Or even give the sources IFF circuitry - Dragon pulsed "Numbers?" and
they reply "One", "Two", etc., as the case may be.

The laser range finders worked fine, once they were tweaked a bit to
prevent them from seeing "stray" reflections from the Japanese module.
Tweaking is to be expected on initial test flights. If it weren't, we'd
just skip the test flights and go straight to "operational" status.

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long.