50 Years After Apollo, India Is Carrying a NASA Laser Reflector to the Moon (And It's Only the Start

[Judi Lynn]

Last edited Fri Jul 26, 2019, 08:14 PM - Edit history (1)

By Chelsea Gohd 8 hours ago



A "microreflector" retroreflector that is currently on its way to the lunar surface. (Image: © NASA/GSFC)

An Indian spacecraft is carrying the first reflectors to be left on the moon since the Apollo era.

The reflectors, which are part of the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) Chandrayaan-2 mission that launched earlier this week, represent the next step in an experiment that began in 1969.

Fifty years (and a few days) ago, the Apollo 11 astronauts left the Lunar Laser Ranging experiment on the moon. The experiment contained a tray of 100 small prisms that scientists on Earth would shoot with laser beams. Astronauts on Apollo 14 and 15 followed suit, leaving more of these prisms, known as retroreflectors, on the moon. Incredibly, decades later, these reflectors remain active experiments.

ISRO launched a tiny new retroreflector to the moon's south pole on board Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lander. It weighs only 1 ounce (about 22 grams) and can be seen from lunar orbit, but not from Earth, Simone Dell'Agnello, an Executive Technologist at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics - Frascati National Labs in Italy, told Space.com in an email.

More:
https://www.space.com/next-gen-apollo-moon-laser-reflector-on-india-mission.html