The Present and Future of an SLR System Built Under theCooperation between China and Argentina

This paper briefly describes a Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) system with high precision, which is built for the cooperative observation and research of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the San Juan University of Argentina.The CH-AR SLR system, with the telescope diameter 60 cm, is made by the Chinese side.In the autumn of 2005, it was moved to Argentina and then installed in the observatory of San Juan University.The San Juan University built the observational room and prepared the working conditions for the SLR system.The debugging of the system has been completed and it started to work in the end of February, 2006.Due to the good working status of the system maintained by both sides and the good weather conditions at San Juan, the system has yielded excellent observational data in the past two years.The International Laser Ranging Service regards the SLR system as an important contribution and hopes that the daylight tracking will be added to the SLR system.The development plan of the SLR system in the future is briefly discussed here as well.