NASA Probe Shoots Indian Moon Lander With Laser
Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2024 1:59 am
NASA Probe Shoots Indian Moon Lander With Laser
Read more here:
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/nasa-probe-sh ... 12999.html
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has successfully bounced a laser off of India's Vikram lander, which successfully touched down on the Moon's surface in August.
The LRO's laser altimeter aimed its sights at Vikram in December, shooting it with a series of laser pulses. Vikram's 2-inch-wide retroreflector, which comes courtesy of NASA, bounced these signals right back, with scientists confirming the first-of-its-kind "ping" moments later.
The feat could revolutionize the way we locate objects and determine their exact locations on the Moon's surface from vast distances using a surprisingly low-tech solution.
"We’ve showed that we can locate our retroreflector on the surface from the Moon’s orbit," said Xiaoli Sun, team lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in a statement. "The next step is to improve the technique so that it can become routine for missions that want to use these retroreflectors in the future."
Read more here:
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/nasa-probe-sh ... 12999.html
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has successfully bounced a laser off of India's Vikram lander, which successfully touched down on the Moon's surface in August.
The LRO's laser altimeter aimed its sights at Vikram in December, shooting it with a series of laser pulses. Vikram's 2-inch-wide retroreflector, which comes courtesy of NASA, bounced these signals right back, with scientists confirming the first-of-its-kind "ping" moments later.
The feat could revolutionize the way we locate objects and determine their exact locations on the Moon's surface from vast distances using a surprisingly low-tech solution.
"We’ve showed that we can locate our retroreflector on the surface from the Moon’s orbit," said Xiaoli Sun, team lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in a statement. "The next step is to improve the technique so that it can become routine for missions that want to use these retroreflectors in the future."