China joins the elite with LLR success
Print Edition
China has accomplished its first successful Lunar Laser Ranging with a 1.2-meter telescope laser ranging system.
Based on the signals of laser pulses reflected by the lunar retro-reflector planted by the US manned mission Apollo 15, the applied astronomy group from the Yunnan Observatories measured the distance between the Apollo 15 retro-reflector and the Yunnan Observatories ground station to be 38,5823.433km to 38,7119.600km, on January 22 this year.
Theoretically, LLR measures the distance between the Earth and the moon by calculating the time a laser pulse takes to travel from a ground station on Earth to a retro-reflector on the moon and back again.
LLR technology traverses fields such as laser and photoelectric detection, automatic control and space orbiting. Compared to other methods, LLR can achieve the highest accuracy of distance measurement between the Earth and the moon.
“Although LLR in China has not achieved the same level as pioneering countries like the US, our initial success still means the progress, which started from scratch,” said Li Yuqiang, an associate researcher with Yunnan Observatories.
Results of LLR are vital to advanced research in astro-geodynamics, Earth-moon system dynamics and lunar physics. Until China made its first LLR, only the US, France and Italy had the technology.
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