Dual-comb absolute ranging reaches orbit

Yuxuan Ma; Yingying Gu; Siyu Zhou; Liheng Shi; Yongchun Xie; Guanhao Wu

doi:10.1038/s41377-026-02283-9

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Dual-comb absolute ranging reaches orbit

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- Dual-comb absolute ranging reaches orbit
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 6, Pages: 1753-1755(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
  2.GuangWay (Guangdong) Technology Co. Ltd., Foshan, China
  3.Science and Technology on Space Intelligent Control Laboratory, Beijing Institute of Control Engineering, Beijing, China
- Author bio：
  
  Guanhao Wu (guanhaowu@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-026-02283-9
  CLC：
- Online First：20 April 2026，
  
  Published：30 June 2026
- Accepted：
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Ma, Y. X. et al. Dual-comb absolute ranging reaches orbit. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 1753-1755 (2026).
DOI：

Ma, Y. X. et al. Dual-comb absolute ranging reaches orbit. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 1753-1755 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-026-02283-9.

摘要

Abstract

A dual-comb absolute-ranging payload delivered to China's Tiangong space station aboard Tianzhou-9 has demonstrated sustained on-orbit interferogram acquisition in an extravehicular environment. The system reports 13 µm precision at a 1 kHz update rate and stable operation over months

advancing traceable space metrology for formation flying and deployable observatories.

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Keywords

references

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Yang, Y. T. et al. Analysis of the impact of timing jitter on dual-comb ranging. Opt. Express 34 , 549–567 (2026)..

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Pröbster, B. J. et al. FOKUS Ⅱ—Space flight of a compact and vacuum compatible dual frequency comb system. J. Optical Soc. Am. B 38 , 932–939 (2021)..

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Kuschewski, F. et al. COMPASSO mission and its iodine clock: outline of the clock design. GPS Solut. 28 , 10 (2024)..

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