NASA Orbital Debris Observatory

NASA Orbital Debris Observatory or NODO was an observatory that hosted NASA-LMT, a 3 meter (9.8 foot) diameter aperture liquid metal telescope and astronomical survey funded and operated by NASA from 1995 to 2002 in New Mexico, USA.^[1] It was a zenith or transit telescope pointed straight up, that used 20 narrowband filters to catalog space debris in earth orbit.^[2] When it was retired, some of the components were used in the 6 m (19 foot) Large Zenith Telescope.

The main telescope is the NASA-LMT, for liquid metal telescope, but is sometimes referred to by the observatory name. The observatory also used a 32cm Schmidt CDT telescope. The LMT was also used for the UBC-NASA Multi-Narrowband survey.^[3]

References

1. ^ http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/measure/optical.html
2. ^ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1998astro.ph..4267C The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 509, Issue 1, pp. 309-323.
3. ^ http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/313080

External links

• NODO
• NASA Orbital Debris Programs

See also

• List of largest optical telescopes in the 20th century
• ESA Space Debris Telescope