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Depth cameras, typically in RGB-D configurations, are common devices in mobile robotic platforms given their appealing features: high frequency and resolution, low price and power requirements, among others. These sensors may come with…
This work demonstrates that a middle size ring laser gyroscope (RLG) can be a very sensitive and robust instrument for rotational seismology, even if it operates in a quite noisy environment. The RLG has a square cavity, $1.60\times 1.60$…
Typical astronomical spectrographs have a resolution ranging between a few hundred to 200.000. Deconvolution and correlation techniques are being employed with a significance down to 1/1000 th of a pixel. HeAr and ThAr lamps are usually…
The Moon is a unique platform for fundamental astrophysical measurements of gravitation, the Sun, and the Universe. Lacking a permanent ionosphere and, on the farside, shielded from terrestrial radio emissions, a radio telescope on the Moon…
We present new constraints on Lorentz symmetry (LS) violations with lunar laser ranging (LLR). Those constraints are derived in the standard-model extension (SME) framework aiming at parameterizing any LS deviations in all sectors of…
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)…
We report results on ranging based on frequency shifted feedback (FSF) lasers with two different implementations: (1) An Ytterbium-fiber system for measurements in an industrial environment with accuracy of the order of 1 $\mu$m, achievable…
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…
Inertial sensors stimulate very large interest, not only for their application but also for fundamental physics tests. Ring laser gyros, which measure angular rotation rate, are certainly among the most sensitive inertial sensors, with…
Active reflector is one of the key technologies for constructing large telescopes, especially for the millimeter/sub-millimeter radio telescopes. This article introduces a new efficient laser angle metrology system for the active reflector…
Setting up a relativistic lunar reference frame is of a prime importance in the context of future exploration missions to the Moon. If the procedure for building a consistent reference frame within the framework of the general theory of…
Earth rotation sensing has many applications in different disciplines, such as for the monitoring of ground motions, the establishment of UT1 and the test of the relativistic Lense-Thirring effect on the ground. We report the development of…
Existing capabilities in laser ranging, optical interferometry and metrology, in combination with precision frequency standards, atom-based quantum sensors, and drag-free technologies, are critical for the space-based tests of fundamental…
This paper reviews improved calibration methods for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector. We cross calibrated the set of LEND observations and models of its detectors physical geometry and composition against…
It is suggested that modern techniques of radio ranging when applied to study the motion of the Moon, can improve the accuracy of tests of relativistic gravitation obtained with currently operating laser ranging techniques. Other auxillary…
A coherent, short-length reference arm reflectometer, which utilizes a 76-MHz repetition rate mode-locked fiber laser, was investigated experimentally for long fiber links (> 10 km). The reflectometer combines the advantages of optical…
The lunar surface is a compelling location for large, distributed optical facilities, with significant advantages over orbital facilities for high spatial resolution astrophysics. The serious development of mission concepts is timely…
More than 30 years of lunar laser ranging has produced several key tests of gravitational theory, including confirmation that bodies fall in external gravity at rates independent of their internal gravitational binding energy, and that…
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…
The active broadband (1 kHz-100 MHz) tripole antenna now envisaged to be placed on the European Lunar Lander located at the Lunar South Pole allows for sensitive measurements of the exosphere and ionosphere, and their interaction with the…