By Neal Singer The first step in deploying lasers on space
satellites will take place Sept. 9, when NASA sends a lidar
system into orbit on the space shuttle Discovery, says the UI
researcher who helped design the major experiments for the
mission. The lidar system, dubbed NASA LITE, is expected to be
aboard the shuttle when it is launched at 4:30 p.m. EDT from
Cape Canaveral, Fla., to monitor Earth's atmosphere. The shuttle
is scheduled to return Sept. 18. Lidar, an acronym derived from
light detection and ranging, emits laser beams rather than radio
waves to obtain information. LITE derives from Lidar in Space
Technology Experiment. "Through use of a pulsed laser beam as an
active sensor, we can measure light back-scattered from air
molecules, clouds and aerosols, or reflections from Earth's
surface, and infer information about characteristics of the
atmosphere," says UI electrical and computer engineer Chester S.
Gardner. The system will be firing 10 times a second in the
green, ultraviolet and infrared ra