Related papers: Lunar laser ranging: the millimeter challenge
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…
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 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)…
Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) is an established technique providing very accurate position measurements of satellites in Earth orbit. However, despite decades of development, it remains a complex and expensive technology, which impedes its…
In 1859, Le Verrier discovered the Mercury perihelion advance anomaly. This anomaly turned out to be the first relativistic-gravity effect observed. During the 157 years to 2016, the precisions and accuracies of laboratory and space…
For many years, lunar laser ranging (LLR) observations using a green wavelength have suffered an inhomogeneity problem both temporally and spatially. This paper reports on the implementation of a new infrared detection at the Grasse LLR…
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…
Forty years ago, Apollo astronauts placed the first of several retroreflector arrays on the lunar surface. Their continued usefulness for laser-ranging might suggest that the lunar environment does not damage optical devices. However, new…
We construct a set of post-Newtonian reference frames for a comprehensive study of the orbital dynamics and rotational motion of the Moon and Earth by means of lunar laser ranging (LLR) with the precision of one millimeter. We also derive…
The Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation (APOLLO) began millimeter-precision ranging to the Moon in 2006. Until now, a comprehensive validation of APOLLO system range accuracy has not been possible because of…
Since 1969, Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) data have been collected by various observatories and analysed by different analysis groups. In the recent years, observations with bigger telescopes (APOLLO) and at infra-red wavelength (OCA) are…
During the past century Einstein's theory of General Relativity gave rise to an experimental triumph, however, there are still aspects of this theory to be measured or more accurately tested. One of the main challenges in experimental…
Satellite laser-ranging is successfully used in space geodesy, geodynamics and Earth sciences; and to test fundamental physics and specific features of General Relativity. We present a confirmation to approximately one part in a billion of…
Three possible applications of lunar laser ranging to space geodesy are studied. First, the determination of daily Earth orientation parameters (UT0 and variation of latitude), which is rarely used nowadays in presence of all-year VLBI,…
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…
Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) is an established technology used for geodesy, fundamental science and precise orbit determination. This paper reports on the first successful SLR measurement from the German Aerospace Center research…
In 1970, the Soviet Lunokhod 1 rover delivered a French-built laser reflector to the Moon. Although a few range measurements were made within three months of its landing, these measurements---and any that may have followed---are unpublished…
This paper addresses the motivation, technology and recent results in the tests of the general theory of relativity (GR) in the solar system. We specifically discuss Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR), the only technique available to test the Strong…
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…
In the experimental tests of gravity, there have been considerable interests in the possibility of intermediate-range gravity. In this paper, we use the earth-satellite measurement of earth gravity, the lunar orbiter measurement of lunar…