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Experimental data of Hayabusa2 laser altimeter (LIDAR) in the laser link experiment released
Experimental data of Hayabusa2 laser altimeter (LIDAR) in the laser link experiment have been released, which were used in the refereed article shown below. In principle, the LIDAR measures the distance between the spacecraft and the asteroid surface. In this experiment, however, the instrument was operated most of the time in the "laser link mode", in which the LIDAR receives the laser pulses from the ground first, and then it emits the pulses backward. General description on the experiment is given in the Hayabusa2 project site , and details of the results are in the open-access journal page. (Image credit: NAOJ/NICT/JAXA/CIT/SERC/NEC, Noda et al.) (April 2017)