A new kind of radar has been developed for space-age travelers. A working laboratory model of a new system of radar that makes use of a beam of light is said to be ten thousand times more accurate than the best comparable system of radar that uses microwaves. The model has shown that this radar system (known as laser-doppler radar) can measure with absolute precision speeds varying from spaceship orbital injection velocities (速度) of five miles per second down to virtual stops—speeds of less than one ten thousandth of an inch per second. According to the scientists who are developing this system, such fine measures of velocity are of prime importance in space missions. In a rendezvous (会合, 会合点) between two spaceships, or in a landing approach by a vehicle onto an orbiting space station, a bump could rip open a ships skin, or a nudge (轻触) could knock the station out of its orbit. The light-beam radar, which operates at a frequency of trillions of cycles per second, could easily detect and measure the movement of a vehicle edging up to a satellite space station even at a small fraction of an inch per second. A control system using so precise a signal as this would allow a huge vehicle to dock at a space station as lightly as a feather. Laser-doppler radar makes use of______.