3-Way Lunar Radio Ranging Experiment on RT-32 Radio Telescopes

Abstract

Since 2017, the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been conducting observations of the Chang’E-3 lander carrier wave signal. The paper presents the features of observation scheduling and results of data processing. High-precision phase radar measurements have been obtained with an instrumental error of 1–2 mm. The deviation of residuals in model calculations does not exceed ± 1 cm. The estimates of CE-3 lander position have been obtained with an accuracy of 0.5’’, 7.4 m and 3.2 m in celenocentric cylindrical longitude, Px and Py coordinates, respectively.