Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment (original) (raw)
The Apollo 11, Apollo 14, and Apollo 15 missions left retro-reflectors on the Moon as part of a laser ranging experiment, the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment.
Since then, the range from Earth to Moon has been measured at intervals, over a period of more than 30 years. Lunar ranging provides information that is potentially useful for a number of purposes, including providing tests of general relativity.
As of 2002 work is progressing on increasing the accuracy of the Earth-Moon measurements to near millimeter accuracy.
to be written
External links
- http://www.lpi.usra.edu/expmoon/Apollo15/A15_Experiments_LRRR.html
- http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEhelp/ApolloLaser.html
- http://almagest.as.utexas.edu/~rlr/history.html
- http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9907/21/apollo.experiment/
- http://www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/2002archive/01-02archive/k011402.html