Government of the United States of America, As Represented by the Secretary of Commerce

Robert J Hocken

Kam Chiu Lau

A tracking system for measuring at least the spatial coordinates of a target and possibly the angular orientation of the target. A collimated beam is directed to the target and a mirror attached to the target reflects this beam back to a tracking point. Photosensors attached to the tracking or target point provide error signals to a servo system which controls optics at the tracking or target points to provide the direction necessary to accomplish the coincidence of the beams. An interferometer interferes the source beam with the beam that has travelled twice between the tracking and target points in order to measure the separation. By measuring the directions of the beams relative to structure attached to the tracking and target points, the target point can be located in spatial coordinates and additionally the orientation of the target structure can be determined.

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Barnesville, MD, United States of America

Robert J Hocken