Related papers: Lunar laser ranging: the millimeter challenge
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…
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…
Current thinking about the Moon as a destination has revitalized interest in lunar astronomical observatories. Once seen by a large scientific community as a highly enabling site, the dramatic improvement in capabilities for free-space…
The Apache Point Lunar Laser-ranging Operation (APOLLO) has been collecting lunar range measurements for 15 years at millimeter accuracy. The median nightly range uncertainty since 2006 is 1.7 mm. A recently added Absolute Calibration…
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…
We look at what astronomy from the Moon might be like in the visible over the next few decades. The Moon offers the possibility of installing large telescopes or interferometers with instruments larger than those on orbiting telescopes. We…
Detecting and studying pulsars above a few GHz in the radio band is challenging due to the typical faintness of pulsar radio emission, their steep spectra, and the lack of observatories with sufficient sensitivity operating at high…
The lunar surface allows a unique way forward in cosmology, to go beyond current limits. The far side provides an unexcelled radio-quiet environment for probing the dark ages via 21 cm interferometry to seek elusive clues on the nature of…
Space debris has been posing a serious threat to human space activities and is needed to be measured and cataloged. As a new technology of space target surveillance, the measurement accuracy of DRLR (Diffuse Reflection Laser Ranging) is…
The laws of gravitation have been tested for a long time with steadily improving precision, leading at some moment of time to paradigmatic evolutions. Pursuing this continual effort is of great importance for science. In this communication,…
The Earth, Mars, Sun, Jupiter system allows for a sensitive test of the strong equivalence principle (SEP) which is qualitatively different from that provided by Lunar Laser Ranging. Using analytic and numerical methods we demonstrate that…
Ongoing microlensing surveys have already yielded more than five hundred microlensing events, most of which have been identified in real-time. In this review I present the basic theory and observational status of these surveys. I highlight…
The Laser Ranging Interferometer (LRI) instrument on the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow-On mission has provided the first laser interferometric range measurements between remote spacecraft, separated by approximately…
Despite theoretical predictions of the existence of many submillimeter masers, and some pioneering observational discoveries over the past few decades, these lines have remained relatively unstudied due to (i) challenges associated with…
The validity of General Relativity, after 100 years, is supported by solid experimental evidence. However, there is a lot of interest in pushing the limits of precision by other experiments. Here we focus our attention on the equivalence…
The study of the generation of metric perturbation in the laboratory presents an opportunity to observe and understand more easily the mechanisms at work in gravitation. The present study will focus on the metric perturbation generated by a…
Two radio-science instruments have included into the Luna-Glob and Luna-Resource projects in the frame of Russian Luna exploration program: the lander's radio beacon and the orbiter's receiver. Three types of experiments are planned:…
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…
Recent advances in VLBI have led to astrometric accuracy exceeding that of the Gaia mission goals. This chapter describes some important astrophysical problems that can be addressed with sub-milliarcsecond imaging and micro-arcsecond…
In the companion paper ("Erosion rate of lunar soil under a landing rocket, part 1: identifying the rate-limiting physics", this issue) an equation was developed for the rate that lunar soil erodes under the exhaust of a landing rocket.…