A simulation study of multi-beam altimetry for lunar reconnaissance orbiter and other planetary missions

Abstract

The combined use of altimetry, Earth-based Doppler and Earth-based range measurements in the lunar reconnaissance orbiter (LRO) mission (Chin et al. in Space Sci Rev 129:391–419, 2007) has been examined in a simulation study. It is found that in the initial phases of the mission orbit and altimeter geolocation accuracies should be better than 10 m in the radial component and 60 m overall. It is demonstrated that LRO’s precise 1-way laser range measurement from Earth-based stations (Smith et al. in Proceedings of the 15th International Laser Ranging Workshop, Canberra, Australia, October 15–20, 2006) will be useful for gravity recovery. The advantages of multiple laser beams are demonstrated for altimeter calibration, orbit determination and gravity recovery in general planetary settings as well as for LRO.