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Corner-cube retro-reflector instrument for advanced lunar laser ranging

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Abstract

Lunar laser ranging (LLR) has made major contributions to our understanding of the Moon’s internal structure and the dynamics of the Earth–Moon system. Because of the recent improvements of the ground-based laser ranging facilities, the present LLR measurement accuracy is limited by the retro-reflectors currently on the lunar surface, which are arrays of small corner-cubes. Because of lunar librations, the surfaces of these arrays do not, in general, point directly at the Earth. This effect results in a spread of arrival times, because each cube that comprises the retroreflector is at a slightly different distance from the Earth, leading to the reduced ranging accuracy. Thus, a single, wide aperture corner-cube could have a clear advantage. In addition, after nearly four decades of successful operations the retro-reflectors arrays currently on the Moon started to show performance degradation; as a result, they yield still useful, but much weaker return signals. Thus, fresh and bright instruments on the lunar surface are needed to continue precision LLR measurements. We have developed a new retro-reflector design to enable advanced LLR operations. It is based on a single, hollow corner cube with a large aperture for which preliminary thermal, mechanical, and optical design and analysis have been performed. The new instrument will be able to reach an Earth–Moon range precision of 1-mm in a single pulse while being subjected to significant thermal variations present on the lunar surface, and will have low mass to allow robotic deployment. Here we report on our design results and instrument development effort.

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Notes

  1. Note that the hexagonal design yields 6 fold symmetry rather than the 4 fold of the Apollo 11 design.

  2. For details on thermal analysis package I-DEAS TMG, see http://www.mayahtt.com/.

  3. CHEXA is a six-sided solid element with eight or twenty grid points.

  4. CPENTA is a five-sided solid element with six or fifteen grid points.

  5. For details on finite element analysis package NX NASTRAN, see http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/products/nx/nx7/index.shtml.

  6. See details on ZYGO interferometer at http://www.zygo.com/.

  7. http://www.russianspaceweb.com/luna_glob.html

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Acknowledgements

We thank Leon Alkalai, W. Bruce Banerdt, Hamid Hemmati, Michael Shao, and Michael Werner of JPL for their interest, support and encouragement during the work. We also thank David Arnold, Douglas Currie and Thomas W. Murphy Jr. for helpful conversations. The work described in this report was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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  1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA, 91109-0899, USA

    Slava G. Turyshev, James G. Williams, William M. Folkner, Gary M. Gutt, Richard T. Baran, Randall C. Hein, Ruwan P. Somawardhana, John A. Lipa & Suwen Wang

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  1. Slava G. Turyshev
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Correspondence to Slava G. Turyshev.

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Turyshev, S.G., Williams, J.G., Folkner, W.M. et al. Corner-cube retro-reflector instrument for advanced lunar laser ranging. Exp Astron 36, 105–135 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-012-9324-z

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