10.13016/M2YUGT-QGQK
Viswanathan, Vishnu
Mazarico, Erwan
Merkowitz, Stephen
Williams, James G.
Turyshev, Slava G.
Currie, Douglas G.
Ermakov, Anton I.
Rambaux, Nicolas
Fienga, Agnès
Courde, Clément
Chabé, Julien
Torre, Jean-Marie
Bourgoin, Adrien
Schreiber, Ulrich
Eubanks, Thomas M.
Wu, Chensheng
Dequal, Daniele
Agnello, Simone Dell
Biskupek, Liliane
Müller, Jürgen
Kopeikin, Sergei
Extending Science from Lunar Laser Ranging
Maryland Shared Open Access Repository
2020
Maryland Shared Open Access Repository
Maryland Shared Open Access Repository
2020-09-11
2020-09-11
2020-08-21
Vishnu Viswanathan et al., Extending Science from Lunar Laser Ranging, https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.09584
http://hdl.handle.net/11603/19647
8 pages
This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
Public Domain Mark 1.0
This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
The Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) experiment has accumulated 50 years of range data of improving accuracy from ground stations to the laser retroreflector arrays (LRAs) on the lunar surface. The upcoming decade offers several opportunities to break new ground in data precision through the deployment of the next generation of single corner-cube lunar retroreflectors and active laser transponders. This is likely to expand the LLR station network. Lunar dynamical models and analysis tools have the potential to improve and fully exploit the long temporal baseline and precision allowed by millimetric LLR data. Some of the model limitations are outlined for future efforts. Differential observation techniques will help mitigate some of the primary limiting factors and reach unprecedented accuracy. Such observations and techniques may enable the detection of several subtle signatures required to understand the dynamics of the Earth-Moon system and the deep lunar interior. LLR model improvements would impact multi-disciplinary fields that include lunar and planetary science, Earth science, fundamental physics, celestial mechanics and ephemerides.