For over 40 years, NASA's global network of satellite laser ranging (SLR) stations has provided a significant percentage of the global orbital data used to define the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). The current NASA legacy network has reached its end and a new generation of systems must be ready to take its place. The scientific demands for submillimeter accuracy and the ever-increasing number of tracking targets place high demands on the performance of this new generation of systems. Based on the experience from the legacy systems and the successful development of a prototype station, a new network of SLR stations, the so-called Space Geodesy Satellite Laser Ranging (SGSLR) systems, will be developed. This will be the most advanced SLR component of the NASA space geodesy project.

NASA has chosen the German company Baader Planetarium as its dome supplier. Here you can see a video demonstrating the speed of the high-speed dome in the workshop of Baader Planetarium:

The Goddard Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory (GGAO) is located in the center of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, about 3 miles outside of the Goddard Space Flight Center. GGAO houses some of the data acquisition systems of the Space Geodesy Project's Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), Very Long Baseline Interferometry and Global Navigational Satellite System. SLR systems include the legacy operational system MOBLAS-7, the next-generation NGSLR system (former prototype of the SGSLR system), the 1.2-meter telescopic research facility, and the newly developed SGSLR system.

NASA's official blog covers the development of SGSLR at GGAO, including the construction of the facility, integration and testing of the instrumentation and any verification of the system during collaboration with MOBLAS-7.

Further details about the system requirements, design specifications, performance metrics, and the benefits of the SGSLR system for global geodetic infrastructure can be found here.

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The Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) in Frankfurt operates the Fundamental Station Wettzell in the Bavarian Forest. This site hosts various measuring systems broadly categorized under geodesy. These include radio telescopes for measuring continental drift using "Very Long Baseline Interferometry," GPS absolute stations within the global network, and telescopes for "Lunar Laser Ranging" and "Satellite Positioning and Tracking" to determine variations in the Earth's gravitational field (GOCE).

In 2006, we installed a 6.15-meter and a 5.3-meter special dome in Wettzell for the Lunar Laser Ranging project and the Satellite Tracking telescopes. Each dome houses an instrument for high-speed satellite tracking, requiring the domes to rotate very quickly.

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Satelliten Laserranging (SLR) Station des GFZ in Potsdam. Mittels der von Satelliten reflektierten ultrakurzen Laserimpulse wird durch Laufzeitmessung der Pulse die Flugbahn spezieller Erdsatelliten zentimetergenau vermessen. Derartige Messungen dienen der präzisen Bestimmung der großräumigen Tektonik der Erde, ihres Schwerefeldes sowie der Qualitätskontrolle von Navigationsverfahren wie GPS. Weitere Informationen hierzu finden Sie auf der Website des GFZ Potsdam

Anmerkung: Hierbei handelt es sich um eine Spezialanfertigung.

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Im Frühsommer 2008 hat das Baader Team zwei vollautomatische 5,3 Meter Kuppeln für die Östereichische Akademie der Wissenschaften am Institut für Weltarumforschung am Observatorium Lustbühel installiert und in Betrieb genommen.

Das Institut für Weltraumforschung - Abteilung Satellitengeodäsie - betreibt seit 1982 eine „Satellite Laser Ranging“ (SLR) Station am Observatorium Lustbühel.

Heute messen wir - bei Tag und bei Nacht, an 7 Tagen in der Woche – die Entfernung zu, mit Retro-Reflektoren ausgestatteten, Satelliten, die in einer Höhe von bis zu 20,000 Kilometern die Erde umkreisen, mit einer Einzelschussgenauigkeit von ± 2-3 mm. Damit gehört die Grazer Station zu den besten Laserbeobachtungsstationen auf der Welt. Bis heute wurden Messungen zu mehr als 50 solcher Satelliten durchgeführt.

Lesen Sie hier das offizielle Kundenurteil:

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5.45 Meter folding shell Highspeed Dome - with Contraves-Kinotheodolit

This folding shell sighting dome has been designed especially for ballistic surveillance and is equipped with a high-speed rotary drive, were the dome can be rotated 24/7 at 30°/s - with a maximum rotational speed of 90°/s.

Anmerkung: This is exclusively a military product.

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In 2007 we erected a 3.2 meter dome for the University of Munich (LMU) on the Wendelstein (at an altitude of 1,850 meters with measured wind speeds of up to 250 km/h).

Three years later followed our largest dome to date with a diameter of 8.5 meters. See the video and below some pictures of our most exciting dome installation so far.

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Update 2022:

Statement of our experience with the BAADER equipment:
After more than 10 years of operation we can say that the 3.2m Baader alpine-version dome and cold-temp mount were among the most robust operational instruments in the CANDAC inventory at Eureka. In addition, Baader's support was outstanding all along: professional, continuous and timely.

Norman T. O'Neill, CANDAC, Université de Sherbrooke

Published papers for whose data was acquired using the BAADER mount and dome:

• Ivanescu, L., K. Baibakov, N. T. O'Neill, J.-P. Blanchet, Y. Blanchard, A. Saha, M. Rietzec and .-H. Schulz, Challenges in operating an Arctic telescope, Proc. SPIE 9145, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes V, 914549, 2014; doi:10.1117/12.2071000.
• Baibakov, K., O'Neill, N. T., Ivanescu, L., Duck, T. J., Perro, C., Herber, A., Schulz, K.-H., and Schrems, O.: Synchronous polar winter starphotometry and lidar measurements at a High Arctic station, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 3789-3809, doi:10.5194/amt-8-3789-2015, 2015.
• O'Neill, N. T., K. Baibakov, S. Hesaraki, L. Ivanescu, R. V. Martin, C. Perro, J. P. Chaubey, A. Herber, and T. J. Duck. "Temporal and spectral cloud screening of polar winter aerosol optical depth (AOD): impact of homogeneous and inhomogeneous clouds and crystal layers on climatological-scale AODs." ACP, 16, no. 19, 12753-12765, 2016.
• Ivănescu, L., Baibakov, K., O'Neill, N. T., Blanchet, J.-P., and Schulz, K.-H.: Accuracy in starphotometry, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6561–6599, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6561-2021, 2021.
• Ivănescu, L. and O'Neill, N. T.: Multi-star calibration in starphotometry, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 6111–6121, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-6111-2023, 2023

In August 2010 Baader Planetarium erected a deep temperature professional 3.2 meter dome, together with an AZ 2000 AltAz-mount with thermocover on the order of Dalhousie University Halifax (Dept. of Physics and Atmospheric Research), the Université de Sherbrooke and University of Toronto/Canada suitable for star-photometric research in the high Arctic region.

The location is on Ellesmere Island at 80° North latitude. The EUREKA-station is world´s northermost permanently manned civil point of research. From here it is approx 1000km to the North Pole. Accordingly temperatures in the Arctic winter will drop to – 56°C which requires highly sophisticated technical solutions for the whole installation and especially for all electric drives and electronics. A smaller dome as shown did not survive the harsh environment and had to be left there dysfunctional.

On the other end of the world, at Dome-C Antarctica, there is a 4.5M AllSky Dome in use since 2009 without maintenance. The image to the right, which would be also applicable for this dome in Canada, shows some reasons why it is so important to have an hermetic seal around the telescope and mount, even if such locations postulate zero or almost zero humidity.

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NyAlesund is the most northerly, permanently populated place on earth. From this point almost all European expeditions set out to conquer the North Pole. During the polar winter the route leads over the pack ice - from here almost 1000 km (as the crow flies) - to the geographical pole.

Both the geography and the weather conditions are unique. Two domes of competitors did not work at this place and had to be removed in favour of this construction. The main picture on the left shows the 3.2 meter Baader observation dome of the Koldewey Station for Atmospheric Research in NyAlesund in Svalbard, November 2003 - only a few days after one of the largest solar flares ever measured.

Dome equipment:

fully automated, internet compatible with own software, 3 mtr. diameter gear rim (in "ice-breaking" design), absolute encoder, telescope-coupled dome rotation, weather-resistant sensors, hermetic, low-temperature-resistant seals, double-shell (sandwich) construction with PU insulation, de-icing system.

Instruments:

Zeiss-Meniskas 180 with automatic star photometer and ST-4 CCD camera on Astro-Physics 900 mount in low temperature version (note the pole height of the hour axis at 80° North).

Instrument-upgrade in November 2010

Starphotometer measurement campaign with high-speed photometer mounted on azimutal precision-mount AZ2000 (predecessor of the current 10Micron AZ 2000) inside Baader Planetarium 3,2M low-temperature observation dome.
In contrast to the common Sunphotometer measurements these Aerosol-measurements can be made only during the polar night. These video-sequences were made mainly in the last blue midday-hours of the beginning polar night. The auroras were taken from the same location.

The AZ2000 was produced in the special “Antarctica” version, which is able to work at extreme low temperatures of -84°C (-119F). Special mechanical and electronic considerations were necessary in order to design and produce this peculiar mount: from the correct choice of material and sizes to the use of special and very expensive lubricants, wiring and connectors. A special housing was also designed to protect against temperature and ice crystals formation and which needed different levels of seals depending on the effective operational temperature. This mount is the latest version of the AZ2000, an altazimuth mount based on the mechanics of the GM2000 HPS. The AZ2000 is a very versatile research mount, perfect for scientific activities such as satellite tracking, photometric and astrometric measurements, LiDaR laser applications and so on.

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