Optical responsivities of passive satellites for laser tracking

The Fournet equation for optical cross-sections of trihedral prisms in relativistic velocity aberration conditions is used to calculate the responsivities of spherical-array passive satellites for laser tracking at unusual – till now –wave-lenghts in this domain, likely to be used in the future as a consequence of the development of tunable vibronic lasers. A parametric correction to be applied in this equation when Fresnel-prism-satellites are investigated is introduced to renormalise the diffraction areas with respect to the case of metal-coated prisms and compute the optical efficiency of total internal reflection systems. The theoretical results are found in good agreement with a few available experimental and theoretical data. Optical link-budgets are established and discussed for some cases of interest.