LRA on Vikram serving as location marker for NASA
NASA’s LRA was accommodated on the Vikram lander under international collaboration. It comprises eight corner-cube retroreflectors on a hemispherical support structure
image for illustrative purpose
With Vikram landing safely on the moon last year, one of its instruments is now serving as a location marker on the moon near its South Pole.
According to ISRO, the scientific instruments/payloads on Vikram and the moon rover Pragyan have performed well.
The Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) on Vikram has begun providing 'fiducial points' (precisely located markers for reference) on the moon. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) achieved a laser range measurement using the LRA by successfully detecting signals reflected by it on December 12, 2023.
“For the first time on the Moon, a laser beam was transmitted and reflected between an orbiting NASA spacecraft and an Oreo-sized device on ISRO’s Vikram lander on the lunar surface. The successful experiment opens the door to a new style of precisely locating targets on the Moon’s surface,” NASA said.
Sending laser pulses toward an object and measuring how long it takes the light to bounce back is a commonly used way to track the locations of Earth-orbiting satellites from the ground.
