This paper primarily investigates the effect of the tilt of corner cube reflector (CCR) arrays on lunar laser ranging (LLR). A mathematical model was established to study the random errors caused by the tilt of the CCR arrays. The study found that, i...
A stable and high-precision autonomous orbit determination scheme for a Low Lunar Orbit (LLO) spacecraft is proposed, leveraging satellite-to-satellite tracking (SST) measurement data and lunar laser ranging data. One satellite orbits around the LLO,...
Lunar laser ranging (LLR) has currently achieved millimeter-level ranging accuracy, establishing itself as a powerful tool for testing general relativity, particularly the equivalence principle. However, atmospheric delay introduces spurious signals...
The present paper discusses the basics of retroreflector theory and the manner in which they are combined in arrays to service the laser tracking of artificial satellites and the Moon. We begin with a discussion of the relative advantages and disadva...
Lunar laser retroreflectors are a crucial target for lunar laser ranging (LLR). During LLR operations at all lunar laser ranging stations, the considerable distance between the Earth and the Moon makes it impossible to visually identify the position...
Since 1969, 55 years ago, Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) has provided accurate and precise (down to ~1 cm RMS) measurements of the Moon’s orbit thanks to the Apollo and Lunokhod Cube Corner Retroreflector (CCR) Laser Retroreflector Arrays (LRAs) dep...
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, re...
Lidar technology plays a pivotal role in lunar exploration, particularly in terrain mapping, 3D topographic surveying, and velocity measurement, which are crucial for guidance, navigation, and control. This paper reviews the current global research a...
Raman spectroscopy is capable of precisely identifying and analyzing the composition and properties of samples collected from the lunar surface, providing crucial data support for lunar scientific research. However, in situ Raman spectroscopy on the...
Extremely slow recession of the Moon from the Earth has been recently proposed and attributed to conversion of Earth’s axial spin to lunar orbital momentum. This hypothesis is inconsistent with long-standing recognition that the Moon’s or...
The project Lunar Volatiles Mobile Instrumentation—Extended (LUVMI-X) developed an initial system design as well as payload and mobility breadboards for a small, lightweight rover dedicated for in situ exploration of the lunar south pole. One o...
The next generation lunar reflector (NGLR) experiment is one of the experiments selected by NASA in the framework of the commercial lunar payload services (CLPS) initiative. The experiment, inspired by the lunar laser ranging (LLR) experiments of the...
With the renewed interest in lunar surface exploration, the European Space Agency envisions to stimulate the creation of lunar communications and navigation services (LCNS) to enable, among others, autonomous navigation capabilities for lunar rovers....
New analyses of extended data records collected with the Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) technique performed with improved tidal models were not able to resolve the issue of the anomalous rate of the eccentricity e of the orbit of the Moon, which i...
Digital elevation models (DEMs) provide fundamental data for scientific and engineering applications in lunar exploration missions. Lunar DEMs have been mainly generated by laser altimetry and stereophotogrammetry. Complementarity to stereo photogram...
Is there an unknown long-range force between dark matter (DM) and ordinary matters? When such a fifth force exists and in the case that it is ignored, the equivalence principle (EP) is violated apparently. The violation of EP was severely constrained...
Lorentz symmetry is an important concept in modern physics. Precision pulsar timing was used to put tight constraints on the coefficients for Lorentz violation in the pure-gravity sector of the Standard-Model Extension (SME). We extend the analysis t...
With the increasing number of lunar missions, utilizing satellites in special orbits in the cislunar space as relay satellites to provide communication relay and navigation services for spacecraft near the Moon has become a hot topic. DRO (Distant Re...
The last few decades have provided abundant evidence for physics beyond the two standard models of particle physics and cosmology. As is now known, the by far largest part of our universe’s matter/energy content lies in the ‘dark’,...
Lorentz symmetry is one of the pillars of both General Relativity and the Standard Model of particle physics. Motivated by ideas about quantum gravity, unification theories and violations of CPT symmetry, a significant effort has been put the last de...
In order to provide a theoretical basis for the thermal analysis and management of spacecraft/payload interstellar pointing attitudes, which are used for inter-satellite communication, this paper develops an analytical method for solar heat flux unde...
We have developed a cosmological model by allowing the speed of light c, gravitational constant G and cosmological constant Λ in the Einstein filed equation to vary in time, and solved them for Robertson-Walker metric. Assuming the universe is...
The HyperSpectral Imager for Climate Science (HySICS) is the core instrument of the Climate Absolute Refractivity and Reflectance Observatory (CLARREO) Pathfinder (CPF) mission and is currently scheduled to be launched to the International Space Stat...
We have shown that the Hubble constant
Objective: We examine whether a finite-range scalar–tensor modification of gravity can be simultaneously compatible with cosmological background data, galaxy rotation curves, and local/astrophysical consistency tests, while satisfying the lumin...