Laser Instrument on NASA’s LRO Successfully ‘Pings’ Indian Moon Lander
Laser Instrument on NASA’s LRO Successfully ‘Pings’ Indian Moon Lander In a significant breakthrough, NASA achieved the transmission and reflection of a laser beam between its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and a small retroreflector on ISRO's Vikram lander on the lunar surface. This successful experiment, conducted near the moon's south pole, introduces a new method for precisely locating targets on the lunar surface. On December 12, 2023, at 3 p.m. EST, the LRO pointed its laser altimeter instrument toward Vikram, which was approximately 62 miles away near the Manzinus crater. After LRO transmitted laser pulses toward Vikram, the orbiter registered light bouncing back from a tiny NASA retro reflector aboard Vikram, confirming the success of the experiment. While tracking Earth-orbiting satellites with laser beams from the ground is a common practice, the reverse technique—sending laser pulses from a moving spacecraft to a stationary one to determine its precise loca...