Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T01:34:33.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

National Mapping’s Astro-Geodetic Complex

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

J. McK. Luck ,
M. J. Miller  and
P. J. Morgan
J. McK. Luck
Affiliation:
Division of National Mapping, Department of Minerals and Energy
M. J. Miller
Affiliation:
Division of National Mapping, Department of Minerals and Energy
P. J. Morgan
Affiliation:
Division of National Mapping, Department of Minerals and Energy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Division of National Mapping has received, on long term loan from NASA and in co-operation with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, a Lunar Laser Ranging instrument consisting of a gigawatt pulsed ruby laser, a 150 cm aspheric Ritchey-Chretien telescope, and associated electronic equipment. The instrument was formerly operated by the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories at Mount Lemmon in Arizona. Its principal use by National Mapping will be direct determination of the distance between the telescope and any of the three retro-reflector arrays placed on the Moon at Hadley’s Rille, Fra Mauro and Mare Tranquillitatis by Apollo astronauts. Full scale operation in conjunction with similar instruments well separated in latitude and longitude, in particular at Mount McDonald in Texas and Mount Haleakala in Hawaii, will permit determination of Earth rotation and polar motion, lunar ephemeris and libration, and tectonic plate movement or continental drift, which justifies its use in a geodetic environment.

Type
Contributions
Information
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , October 1973 , pp. 203 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Buchroeder, R.A., Elmore, L.H., Shack, R.V., Slater, P.N., ‘ The Design, Construction, and Testing of the Optics for a 147-cm Aperture Telescope ’, Final Report for AFCRL, Bedford, Massachusetts, USA, Contract F19628-72-C-0047 (1972).Google Scholar
2 Carter, W.E., Eckhardt, D.H., Robinson, W.G., ‘ AFCRL Lunar Laser Instrumentation Status Report ’, AFCRL Report 72-0615 (1972).Google Scholar
3 Department of the Air Force, Headquarters, US Air Force, Washington DC, USA, ‘ Laser Health Hazards Control ’, AF Manual 161-8 (1969).Google Scholar
4 Michaelson, S.M., Proc. IEEE, 60, 389 (1972).Google Scholar
5 Stock, K., and Keller, G., ‘ Astronomical Seeing ’ in ‘Telescopes’ Kuiper, G.P. and Middlehurst, B.M. (eds), 138 (1963).Google Scholar
6 Kiepenheuer, K.O., IAU Symposium No 19 (Ed. J. Rosch), Le Choix des Sites d’Observatoires Astronomiques, 226 (1962).Google Scholar
7 Fajemirokun, F.A., ‘ Applications of Laser Ranging and VLBI Observations for Selenodetic Control ’, Report No 157, Department of Geodetic Science, Ohio State University for NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas, USA, Contract NAS 9-9695 (1971).Google Scholar