August 14, 2020 7:48
NASA captured a message from the reflector installed on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) space probe.
An important advance in the study of our natural satellite it was achieved by receiving a message that came from the Moon, after ten years. The NASA It sent a laser signal to a reflector, which managed to go back and accurately determine the orbit and distance of the Moon.
In the last century, six reflectors had been installed on the Moon: between 1963 and 1973, the United States placed four and Russia two. With them signals were received, but over time they became weaker.
The goal of laser signals was to accurately measure the distance between our planet and our satellite. By calculating the time that the signal went and returned to Earth, and knowing the speed of light, the distance was determined.
By the end of 2010, the signals weakened until they stopped coming back. Although the reason is not known for sure, there is a possible theory: it could be moon dust, which would have covered and obscured the reflectors.
That is why no messages were received from the Moon again, although the NASA it continued to send rays towards the reflectors. But today, they managed to receive a signal again, using a new reflector.
It is located on the lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter space probe, which went into orbit in 2009. The LRO has 12 mirrors in the shape of a cube corner. This is what the rotation of the moon looks like from the probe:
Thanks to the signal received from there, scientists have been able to determine that the Moon is slowly moving away from the Earth. They estimated that it moves 3.8 cm per year, due to the gravitational interactions of both celestial bodies.
Xiaoli Sun, one of the researchers involved in the design of the reflector for the LRO, said: “The precision of this single measurement has the potential to refine our understanding of gravity and the evolution of the solar system.”
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