Mercury-bound: the BepiColombo Laser Altimeter. (Courtesy: University of Bern/Ramon Lehmann) The laser altimeter for Europe’s first mission to Mercury has been fitted to the Mercury Planetary Orbiter ...

Laser altimetry is a powerful tool for addressing the major objectives of planetary physics and geodesy, and have been applied in planetary explorations of the Moon, Mars, Mercury, and the asteroids ...

First such laser-based system designed for inter-planetary flight built in Europe is part of ESA's BepiColombo mission to map the planet in 3D. How high? The BepiColombo laser alimeter will tell us.

In a cosmicversion of laser tag, NASA's MESSENGERspacecraft and an Earth-based observatory successfully exchanged laser pulseswith each other while millions of miles apart. The featsets a new record ...

Laser altimeter sensor assists conservation groups to improve the scaling accuracy of photographs. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become an important tool for conservation practitioners and have ...

A global view of how Mars changes with the seasons has been provided by extremely precise observations from two investigations on NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft. Elevation and gravity ...

Sea ice in summer looks dramatically different than sea ice in winter, even in the polar Arctic. Summer snowmelt, pools of water on thinning ice and exposed ocean replace vast winter expanses of white ...

Sea ice in summer looks dramatically different than sea ice in winter, even in the polar Arctic. Summer snowmelt, pools of water on thinning ice and exposed ocean replace vast winter expanses of white ...

NASA’s ‘ICESat-2’ satellite, featuring a single-instrument laser altimeter payload, has launched from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base and is said to be “healthy” on arrival in orbit, with its ...

Since 2009, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been taking high-resolution pictures of the lunar surface. This data, along with the information from a laser altimeter mapping instrument has ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Despite some recent delays, NASA’s Artemis program is still ...