Advanced Digital Measuring
Application: 192 Lasers Aligned to 3mm
When the scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) started to build the worlds largest laser system (NIF), they had a very large problem. How were they to align 192 laser beams, longer than a football field, and have them all converge on a single target the size of a BB-gun pellet? With careful planning and the use of precision laser trackers, the large vessels that held the lasers were positioned with care to less than 1mm from the blueprint.
Application: Alignment of 70m Antenna
JPL knew they had a problem with their largest antenna at Goldstone Deep Space Network when they lost touch with a satellite. They did a search again to find it and were able to lock back on, but each day they would lose it again. The antenna was losing lock due to a mechanical problem. Using a laser tracker and some brave operators they were able to go to the top of the antenna and reset the feed horn.
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