Images: NASA Goddard and the GGAO

Photos from my November 2017 visit to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where I met scientists central to the development of lidar that had orbited Mars, Mercury, the moon and Earth. Goddard scientists were also satellite laser ranging (SLR) pioneers; many of these were taken at the Goddard Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory (GGAO).

Goddard scientist Xiaoli Sun with an engineering model of the Mercury Laser Altimeter he helped design.
NASA scientist Greg Neumann with his map of the moon. Neumann created colorful maps of Mars, Mercury and the Moon based on data from Goddard-built space lidars.
Mars, as mapped by MOLA, the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (courtesy NASA)
Mercury, as mapped by MLA, the Mercury Laser Altimeter (courtesy NASA)
The moon, as mapped by LOLA, the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (courtesy NASA)
Part of the LAGEOS engineering model in a box in Goddard scientist Jan McGarry's office. It had just returned from Italy, where scientists used it for SLR testing.
Tushar Ujla mans the controls inside the GGAO’s MOBLAS-7 satellite laser ranging station as colleague Maceo Blount looks on.
Tushar Ujla, a Goddard technician, at the MOBLAS-7 controls.
The satellite priority list taped to the MOBLAS-7 console.
MOBLAS-7, the satellite laser ranging instrument, fires its 532-nanometer bursts 10 times a second at the Goddard Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory (GGAO).
MOBLAS-7 takes aim at the LAGEOS satellite.
Jim Pontius, the GEDI ISS instrument project manager, describes the hardware.
Jim Pontius, the GEDI project manager, points out the GEDI lidar testing area at NASA Goddard.
Technicians with the coolant piping to be added to the GEDI ISS instrument in the background (shot through plastic sheeting enclosing the clean room).