NASA spacecraft pings India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander on the Moon
New Delhi: In a significant development, a laser instrument onboard a NASA spacecraft orbiting the Moon successfully pinged the Vikram lander of India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission, according to the US space agency. By transmitting and reflecting laser beams between the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Oreo-sized device on the Vikram lander, NASA has opened the door to a new method of precisely locating targets on the Moon’s surface. The landmark event occurred when the lander was approximately 100 kilometers away from the LRO, near the Manzinus crater in the Moon’s south pole region. NASA scientists were able to confirm the success of their technique after the orbiter registered light that had bounced back from a tiny NASA retroreflector aboard the Vikram lander, marking a significant advancement in lunar exploration.
The practice of sending laser pulses towards an object and measuring the time it takes for the light to bounce back is commonly used to track the locations of Earth-orbiting satellites. However, employing this technique in reverse, that is, sending laser pulses from a moving spacecraft to a stationary one to determine its precise location, has multiple applications on the Moon, as scientists have pointed out. Xiaoli Sun, who led the team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center responsible for developing the retroreflector on the Vikram lander, emphasized the successful demonstration of locating their retroreflector on the Moon’s surface from its orbit. Sun further stated that the aim is to enhance the technique so that it can be routinely utilized by future missions requiring retroreflectors.
Known as a Laser Retroreflector Array, NASA’s retroreflector is a small yet robust device measuring only 2 inches or 5 centimeters wide. It consists of eight quartz-corner-cube prisms set into a dome-shaped aluminum frame. The retroreflector functions without the need for power or maintenance, making it highly durable and capable of lasting for decades. Its configuration enables the device to reflect light from any direction back to its source, providing valuable data for scientific and exploratory purposes. Retroreflectors have been used on the Moon since the Apollo era and continue to serve numerous applications. Additionally, by reflecting light back to Earth, these retroreflectors have revealed that the Moon is gradually moving away from our planet at a rate of 3.8 centimeters per year, as reported by NASA.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) responded to the development by stating that the Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) on the Chandrayaan-3 lander has now become a fiducial point, serving as a precisely located marker for reference on the Moon. The ISRO added that NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) successfully detected signals reflected by the LRA on December 12, 2023, using the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) during lunar night time. This achievement occurred as the LRO ascended to the east of the Chandrayaan-3 lander.
Overall, the successful ping between the NASA spacecraft and India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander marks a significant milestone in lunar exploration, paving the way for future missions to precisely locate targets on the Moon’s surface.
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