APOLLO 11 -- The Lunar Reflectors

Main Objective of the Mission:

In 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin deployed a range of scientific experiments in the fine powder of the Sea of Tranquility. Among those devices was a laser ranging retroreflector, later a generation, it is still yielding fundamental scientific data.

Scientists who analyze information from the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment have reported some watershed results from these long-term experiments, said team investigator Dr. Jean Dickey at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California.

Laser ranging has made a possible wealth of new information about the dynamics and structure of the Moon. Among all new observations, scientists now believe that the Moon may harbor a liquid core. The theory has been proposed from information on the Moon's rate of rotation and very slight bobbing motions caused by gravitational forces from the Sun and Earth.

Investigators at JPL (J. Williams, et. al.) have computed that lunar ephemeredes and coordinates of the lunar reflectors in two systems, principal axes and mean earth rotation axes. More information about this analysis can be found in the publications listed below.

Mission Instrumentation:

The instrumentation on the moon related to laser ranging is the five retro-reflectors arrays (three US, two French/Russian).

The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal is an evidence of the lunar surface operations conducted by the six pairs of astronauts who landed on the Moon from 1969 through 1972. The Journal is intended as a resource for everyone wanting to know what happened during the missions and why. This includes a corrected transcript of all recorded conversations between the lunar surface crews and Houston. The Journal in addition contains extensive, interwoven commentary by the Editor and by ten of the twelve moon walking astronauts.

The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal was motivated by the work of New Zealand historian J.C. Beaglehole, the 20th Century's foremost authority on the European exploration of the Pacific and, particularly, on the voyages of Captain James Cook.