Highly compact nanosecond laser for space debris tracking

This study demonstrated the use of a highly compact nanosecond laser system operating at 532 nm and producing a maximum output power of 70 W with a pulse width of 5 ns at 0.5 kHz, for space debris tracking. To improve the ranging accuracy while minimizing the influence of the pulse noise, a bidirectional Q-switch was adopted in the oscillator to generate a short pulse width with less tailing. The laser was applied for low-Earth-orbit space debris tracking, and space debris with the farthest distance of 1701.9 km at the minimum radar cross-section of 1 m² could be detected with a ranging precision of up to 26.90 cm.