A Lunar Laser Reflector for the 21st Century
A Lunar Laser Reflector for the 21st Century
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发表时间：
2010-03
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通讯作者：
D. Currie;S. Dell’Agnello;G. Monache
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作者：
D. Currie;S. Dell’Agnello;G. Monache
Introduction: The Lunar Laser Ranging Program using the Apollo Cube Corner Retroreflector (CCR) Arrays [1] has operated as the only experiment on the lunar surface for the past four decades . During this time it has contributed to the determination of the properties of the lunar surface (Love numbers) and provided information on the existence, size and shape of the fluid core. It has also addressed the lunar orbit, the oscillations and Q of the moon[2]. It has also supplied almost all of the significant tests of General Relativity. The Lunar Laser Ranging Program has evaluated the PPN parameters, addressed the possible changes in the gravitational constant and the properties of the selfenergy of the gravitational field. This is the only Apollo experiment that is still in operation. Initially the Apollo Cube Corner Retroreflector (CCR) Arrays contributed a negligible fraction of the ranging error budget. Over the decades, the ranging capabilities of the ground stations have improved by more than two orders of magnitude. Now, after forty years the existing Apollo retroreflector arrays contribute a significant fraction of the limiting errors in the range measurements. This is due to the lunar librations tilting of the array of CCRs and thus contribution to the spreading of the laser pulse. Thus shorter laser pulses have no advantage and we have afunamental width of the return laser pulse to use for timeing due to the lunar librations.
