Lunar Laser Ranging and the Evolution of Lunar Dynamics

Statistics – Applications

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

The shift from angular positions of the Moon to laser ranges required changes in concept as well as data analysis for Earth-Moon dynamics. With angular positions, the emphasis is on the motion of the lunar center of mass. With ranges, the locations of the tracking stations and laser retroreflectors and the orientation of the Earth and Moon become equally important. With angular positions, the distance affects angles through the parallax, while the lunar orbital angular components affect range though projection effects. For calculating the orbit and physical librations for data analysis, range accuracy encouraged a shift from series representations to numerical integration. However, series representations provide insight and have special applications such as frequency dependent tidal effects. Lunar ranging started in 1969 and there have been important subsequent improvements in range accuracy. Over the same time span, the geometrical and dynamical models have become more complex improving the rms fits more than two orders of magnitude. The benefit of accurate ranges and model complexity is the increased number of solution parameters which can be recovered from the fits. Those parameters include precession and tidal dissipation plus station positions and motions for the Earth, gravitational physics tests of equivalence principle and dG/dt from the orbit, and solid-body tides and fluid-core/solid-mantle interactions for the Moon. The range quality and model capabilities have been linked in the past and improved future data and models should bring new results.

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