Related papers: Millimeter Laser Ranging to the Moon: a comprehens…
Phobos Laser Ranging (PLR) is a concept for a space mission designed to advance tests of relativistic gravity in the solar system. PLR's primary objective is to measure the curvature of space around the Sun, represented by the Eddington…
Processing the data of lunar laser ranging (LLR) points to the effect of anomalous increase in the lunar semimajor axis (with an excessive rate about 1.3 cm/yr), which cannot be attributed to the well-known tidal exchange of angular…
A next-generation lunar laser ranging apparatus using the 3.5 m telescope at the Apache Point Observatory in southern New Mexico has begun science operation. APOLLO (the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation) has achieved…
High-precision corner-cube retroreflectors (CCRs) are critical for advanced lunar laser ranging (LLR) because they enable sub-millimeter-scale measurements of the Earth-Moon distance -- a level of precision essential for rigorous tests of…
The aim of this work is to combine the model of orbital and rotational motion of the Moon developed for DE430 with up-to-date astronomical, geodynamical, and geo- and selenophysical models. The parameters of the orbit and physical libration…
Lunar laser ranging provides a number of leading experimental tests of gravitation -- important in our quest to unify General Relativity and the Standard Model of physics. The Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation (APOLLO)…
Onboard localization capabilities for planetary rovers to date have used relative navigation, by integrating combinations of wheel odometry, visual odometry, and inertial measurements during each drive to track position relative to the…
We present the results of measuring the geocentric lunar distance using what we propose is the simplest method to achieve a precise result. Although lunar distance has been systematically measured to a precision of few millimeters using…
The speed of laser light pulses launched from Earth and returned by a retro-reflector on the Moon was calculated from precision round-trip time-of-flight measurements and modeled distances. The measured speed of light (c) in the moving…
All future lunar missions require a definition of the lunar reference system and a realization in the form of the lunar reference frame to ensure consistent products for positioning, navigation, cartography, and timing. This paper defines…
Analyses of laser ranges to the Moon provide increasingly stringent limits on any violation of the Equivalence Principle (EP); they also enable several very accurate tests of relativistic gravity. We report the results of our recent…
The Lunar University Network for Astrophysics Research (LUNAR) is a team of researchers and students at leading universities, NASA centers, and federal research laboratories undertaking investigations aimed at using the Moon as a platform…
The lunar geological record has much to tell us about the earliest history of the Solar System, the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system, the geological evolution of rocky planets, and the near-Earth cosmic environment throughout…
The null findings of the terrestrially conducted Michelson-Morley type experiments have been influential to determining which physical theory best fits reality. Here, we propose the use of parallax and ranging techniques of distance…
The standard-model extension (SME) is an effective field theory framework aiming at parametrizing any violation to the Lorentz symmetry (LS) in all sectors of physics. In this Letter, we report the first direct experimental measurement of…
Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) measures the distance between observatories on Earth and retro-reflectors on Moon since 1970. In this paper, we study the effect of non-tidal station loading (NTSL) in the analysis of LLR data. We add the non-tidal…
This study introduces a data-driven approach using machine learning (ML) techniques to explore and predict albedo anomalies on the Moon's surface. The research leverages diverse planetary datasets, including high-spatial-resolution albedo…
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…
LLR measures the distance between observatories on Earth and retro-reflectors on Moon since 1969. In this paper, we study the possible violation of the equality of passive and active gravitational mass ($m_{a}/m_{p}$), for Aluminium (Al)…
This work aims to explore the possibilities of determining the long-period part of the precession-nutation of the Earth with techniques other than very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). Lunar laser ranging (LLR) is chosen for its…