LRO observation

The NERC Space Geodesy Facility has sucessfully tracked the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) orbiting the moon over 350,000km away!

The tracking technique used is a one-way measurement, the laser pulse fired by the SGF being recorded by a detector onboard the satellite. The observer uses a mission-driven web interface which displays data from the satellite in near-real time to correct for the pointing of the telescope and to syncronise the laser fires with the spinning detector onboard the satellite. Each laser fire epoch from Herstmonceux is transmitted to the NASA mission where it is matched with the LRO-recorded detection in order to determine the range to the satellite to a precision of about 10cm.

Read the NERC Planet Earth online article

The LRO was launched from Cape Canaveral in June 2009, and a few days later reached a two-hour elliptical orbit that takes it from 30 to 200km above the lunar surface. The mission aims to conduct research targeted specifically at preparing for and supporting future human exploration of the Moon. Among its tasks is accurately measuring the Moon's complex gravity field and mapping its surface at high resolution.

Visit the NASA LRO site

Courtesy of NASA GSFC

Go back to Research and Development Page
Go back to SGF main page