Laser Retro-reflector Array Lifts Off On Rocket, Private Company's First Challenge For Moon Mission

Beijing time at 15:18 on January 8, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) developed the "Vulcan Centaur (Vulcan Centaur)" rocket launch vehicle in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to carry out the first mission (CERT-1), the success of the U.S. astrobotic company developed the "Peregrine Falcon". The "Peregrine Falcon" lunar lander, developed by astrobotic, was successfully launched into space. "Peregrine is the first U.S. spacecraft to attempt a soft landing on the Moon in more than 50 years, since Apollo 17 in 1972.
"Peregrine Falcon" lunar lander, 2.5 meters wide, 1.9 meters high, equipped with a laser retro-reflector array, neutron star spectrometer, magnetometer and other scientific instruments. Among them, "Peregrine Falcon" lunar lander equipped with a laser retro-reflector array (Laser-Reflecting Array, referred to as LRA), in fact, is a specially designed mirror array, mainly used in satellite laser ranging.
It is a set of special mirrors, the main difference between this technology and ordinary mirrors is that the Laser-Reflecting Array is able to accurately reflect the laser light back to the light source, rather than reflecting the light at a certain angle. This property makes laser retroreflector arrays ideally suited for measurements to accurately determine the orbit of satellites around the Earth. In satellite laser ranging, laser light emitted from a telescope on Earth reaches a retro-reflector (i.e., a laser retro-reflector) on a spacecraft or celestial body, and the retro-reflector reflects the light back to the telescope. By measuring the time it takes for the laser pulse to leave the telescope and the time it takes for the return pulse to reach the telescope, engineers and scientists can calculate the precise distance between the object and the ground station. This method of ranging is more accurate than methods using radio waves because the shorter wavelength of the laser provides greater measurement accuracy.
In addition to applications in geodesy, laser retroreflector arrays show great potential in other fields. LRAs play a key role in areas such as navigation systems, weather forecasting and environmental monitoring. By using this high-precision measurement tool, we can obtain more accurate geolocation information and gain a deeper understanding of various phenomena on Earth.