Related papers: Will it be possible to measure intrinsic gravitoma…
Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) measurements are crucial for advanced exploration of the laws of fundamental gravitational physics and geophysics. Current LLR technology allows us to measure distances to the Moon with a precision approaching 1…
Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) measurements are crucial for advanced exploration of the evolutionary history of the lunar orbit, the laws of fundamental gravitational physics, selenophysics and geophysics as well as for future human missions to…
Lunar laser ranging (LLR) is used to conduct high-precision measurements of ranges between an observatory on Earth and a laser retro-reflector on the lunar surface. Over the years, LLR has benefited from a number of improvements both in…
Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR), which has been carried out for more than 35 years, is used to determine many parameters within the Earth-Moon system. This includes coordinates of terrestrial ranging stations and that of lunar retro-reflectors,…
Laser pulses fired at retroreflectors on the Moon provide very accurate ranges. Analysis yields information on Earth, Moon, and orbit. The highly accurate retroreflector positions have uncertainties less than a meter. Tides on the Moon show…
Gravitomagnetic field is covariantly split in the {\it intrinsic} and {\it extrinsic} parts, which are generated by rotational and translational currents of matter respectively. The {\it intrinsic} component has been recently discovered in…
The Sun's relativistic gravitational gradient accelerations of Earth and Moon, dependent on the motions of the latter bodies, act upon the system's internal angular momentum. This spin-orbit force (which plays a part in determining the…
In this paper the possibility of measuring some general relativistic effects in the gravitational field of the Moon via selenodetic missions, with particular emphasis to the future Japanese SELENE mission, is investigated. For a typical…
Gravitomagnetism--a motional coupling of matter analogous to the Lorentz force in electromagnetism--has observable consequences for any scenario involving differing mass currents. Examples include gyroscopes located near a rotating massive…
Lunar laser ranging analysis, as regularly performed in the solar system barycentric frame, requires the presence of the gravitomagnetic term in the equation of motion at the strength predicted by general relativity. The same term is…
The Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) experiment has accumulated 50 years of range data of improving accuracy from ground stations to the laser retroreflector arrays (LRAs) on the lunar surface. The upcoming decade offers several opportunities to…
Precise measurements of the Earth-Moon distance by the lunar laser ranging (LLR), which begun in the early 1970's, contributed significantly to geodesy, geophysics, and lunar planetology, as well as enabled astrophysicists to perform…
Lunar laser ranging (LLR) has made major contributions to our understanding of the Moon's internal structure and the dynamics of the Earth-Moon system. Because of the recent improvements of the ground-based laser ranging facilities, the…
One of the most famous classical tests of General Relativity is the gravitoelectric secular advance of the pericenter of a test body in the gravitational field of a central mass. In this paper we explore the possibility of performing a…
An exact expression for the rate of dragging of inertial frames (Lense-Thirring (LT) precession) in a general stationary spacetime, is derived without invoking the weak field approximation. This expression, when used for the Kerr metric,…
Here we explore a novel approach in order to try to measure the post-Newtonian 1/c^2 Lense-Thirring secular effect induced by the gravitomagnetic field of the Sun on the planetary orbital motion. Due to the relative smallness of the solar…
Analysis of Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) data provides science results: gravitational physics and ephemeris information from the orbit, lunar science from rotation and solid-body tides, and Earth science. Sensitive tests of gravitational…
Recent results of the LARASE research program in terms of models improvements and relativistic measurements are presented. In particular, the results regarding the development of new models for the non-gravitational perturbations that…
We present a high-power continuous-wave (CW) lunar laser ranging (LLR) technique that has the potential to significantly improve Earth--Moon distance measurements. Using a 1 kW CW laser at 1064 nm and a 1 m-aperture telescope as an example,…
In this Chapter we deal with the attempts to measure the general relativistic gravitomagnetic Lense-Thirring effect with the Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) technique applied to the existing LAGEOS and LAGEOS II terrestrial satellites and to…