Recent Progress in Lunar Laser Ranging at Grasse Laser Ranging Station

Chabé, Julien; Courde, Clément; Torre, Jean‐Marie; Bouquillon, S.; Bourgoin, Adrien; Aimar, M.; Albanèse, D.; Chauvineau, Bertrand; Mariey, Hervé; Martinot-Lagarde, G.; Maurice, Nicolas; Phung, Duy‐Hà; Samain, E.; Viot, H.

doi:10.1029/2019ea000785

Cited by 22 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…In recent years and with IR NP the situation has improved considerably. For 2019 (shown in Figure 4, right pie) all retro-reflectors were measured approximately equally often, because of the advantage of IR laser light [1]. That is also a big advantage for the analysis, especially for the determination of the lunar libration.…”

Section: Distribution Of the Normal Pointsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With the new technique measurements close to the new Moon and full Moon are possible. Furthermore, ranging to the retro-reflectors at lower elevation angles is possible and a better distribution of the measurements over the reflectors is achieved [1]. All that results in an improved coverage of the lunar orbit and is a big benefit in the analysis of the data and for the determination of various parameters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Benefit of New High-Precision LLR Data for the Determination of Relativistic Parameters

2021

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Since 1969, Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) data have been collected by various observatories and analysed by different analysis groups. In the recent years, observations with bigger telescopes (APOLLO) and at infra-red wavelength (OCA) are carried out, resulting in a better distribution of precise LLR data over the lunar orbit and the observed retro-reflectors on the Moon. This is a great advantage for various investigations in the LLR analysis. The aim of this study is to evaluate the benefit of the new LLR data for the determination of relativistic parameters. Here, we show current results for relativistic parameters like a possible temporal variation of the gravitational constant G˙/G0=(−5.0±9.6)×10−15yr−1, the equivalence principle with Δmg/miEM=(−2.1±2.4)×10−14, and the PPN parameters β−1=(6.2±7.2)×10−5 and γ−1=(1.7±1.6)×10−4. The results show a significant improvement in the accuracy of the various parameters, mainly due to better coverage of the lunar orbit, better distribution of measurements over the lunar retro-reflectors, and last but not least, higher accuracy of the data. Within the estimated accuracies, no violation of Einstein’s theory is found and the results set improved limits for the different effects.

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Section: Distribution Of the Normal Pointsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benefit of New High-Precision LLR Data for the Determination of Relativistic Parameters

2021

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“…The Lunokhod reflectors gave weak photon returns with green beams resulting in infrequent ranges. In recent years, the Lunokhod arrays have been stronger targets in the infrared (Chabé et al., 2020; Courde et al., 2017a, 2017b). Lunokhod 1 was lost for ranging until it was recovered in 2010 (Murphy et al., 2011), so its time series has a shorter span of data than the other 4 reflectors.…”

Section: Llr Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Motion of Lunar Retroreflectors

Williams

Boggs

2021

JGR Planets

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Missions to the Moon by the United States and the Soviet Union left five arrays of corner cube retroreflectors. Ranging stations on the Earth transmit short laser pulses toward the lunar arrays. The corner cube prisms reflect an incoming laser beam back toward its terrestrial source. The time of flight is measured at the stations. See Müller et al. (2019) for a review of Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR).The 3-dimensional locations of the retroreflector arrays, flat assemblies of small corner cube prisms, are determined well (decimeters) when the LLR data are fit. A recent paper by Shapiro et al. (2021) has tested a possible distance rate between the Apollo 11 and Apollo 14 arrays and finds a rate of 0 ± 4 mm/year in distance. This paper tests whether there are linear motions of all 15 array coordinates and the reflector-reflector distances.

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“…Another type of experiment consists in comparing the movements (very close to free falls) of different celestial bodies. The most precise experiment of this type consists in comparing the movement of the Moon and the Earth in the gravitational field of the Sun, thanks to the very precise measurement of the Earth-Moon distance by means of laser telemetry [5]. For such massive bodies, another focus, in addition to a possible violation due to different compositions of the bodies, is the search for a violation related to the self-gravitational energy of the bodies (Nordvedt effect) [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The MICROSCOPE space mission to test the Equivalence Principle

Touboul¹,

Métris²,

Rodrigues³

et al. 2020

Comptes Rendus. Physique

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The MICROSCOPE space experiment aimed to test the Equivalence Principle with a much better accuracy than ever before. Its principle is to compare the free fall of concentric test masses embedded in a space accelerometer onboard a satellite orbiting the Earth. The effect of non-gravitational forces on the motion of the satellite is strongly reduced thanks to the so-called drag-free system. MICROSCOPE ran from April 2017 until October 2019. The analysis of the first series of measurements leads to an improvement of about an order of magnitude on the accuracy of the test of the Equivalence Principle. No violation has been detected for the pair of masses in platinum and titanium at the level of 10 −14 . MICROSCOPE, proposed by ONERA and OCA as science leaders and developed by CNES as project manager, is the first European space mission dedicated to fundamental physics on low Earth orbit. ZARM, PTB and ESA are the main European contributors.

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Recent Progress in Lunar Laser Ranging at Grasse Laser Ranging Station

Cited by 22 publications

References 28 publications

Benefit of New High-Precision LLR Data for the Determination of Relativistic Parameters

Benefit of New High-Precision LLR Data for the Determination of Relativistic Parameters

Testing the Motion of Lunar Retroreflectors

The MICROSCOPE space mission to test the Equivalence Principle

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