Initial Results from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Laser Ranging Investigation

Details Initial Results from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Laser Ranging Investigation Initial Results from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Laser Ranging Investigation

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.u31a0005t&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #U31A-0005

Computer Science

Performance

[5400] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets, [6250] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Moon

Scientific paper

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Laser Ranging (LR) system is enabling the spacecraft to achieve its precision orbit determination requirement. The LR is routinely making one-way range measurements via laser pulse time-of-flight from the Earth to LRO. The LR consists of a receiver telescope mounted on LRO’s high-gain antenna that captures the uplinked laser signal, and a fiber optic cable that routes the signal to the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) on LRO. The LOLA receiver electronics record the time of the laser signal and provide it to LRO’s data system. The LR ground system consists of laser ranging stations that times and transmits the laser pulse, a data facility, and the LOLA Science Operations Center. The primary ground station is NASA’s Next Generation Satellite Laser Ranging System (NGSLR) in Greenbelt, MD, and successful ranging has also been accomplished by MOBLAS-7 at Greenbelt, MLRS at Fort Davis, Texas, Herstmonceux in England, and Zimmerwald in Switzerland. Other approved stations in the International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) will participate in the future. LR measurements permit improvement in the geodetic positioning of LRO to the sub-meter level with respect to the Moon’s center of mass. Positioning by the LR will enable the determination of a three-dimensional geodetic grid for the Moon based on the precise seleno-location of ground spots from LOLA. Current performance indicates 48-cm single-shot range error, or 24 cm with refined calibration. Up to an order of magnitude improvement can be expected from shot averaging.

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