References

This page has an aggragate of the refrences that I used to help me with my project:

Optics of the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiments

Lunar and Planetary Institute: Apollo 11 Mission and the Laser Raging Retroreflectors: This website shows a photo of the lunar retro reflectors and it gives a description of the Apollo missions (Apollo 11,14, and 15) in which retro reflectors were placed on the moon. It also explains some of the experiments done at the McDonald Observatory that used the retro reflectors.

Lunar Surface Project: This is an earlier reference citing the specific design of the experiments.

Lunar Laser Ranging : This article has specific details of the lunar ranging experiments with additional great refrences. It also has great photos to look at and it also maps out the location of each retro reflector.

Learning How Laser Beams Propagate by Deb Klein: This is a previous student's research paper that describes how the light intensity distribution has the form of a Gaussian curve that gradually increases in width. This helped me understand how a laser beam behaves when it is shinned onto the moon.

Comic: This is an interesting and funny comic relating lasers and the lunar retro reflectors.

Mythbuster's Video: This is a video that was originally on the Mythbuster's show on the discovery network. The video shows Adam and Jamie visiting the McDonald Observatory in Texas and testing if "man ever set foot on the moon" by shooting a laser at it. Since the laser beam was detected by the observatory's equipment, it was clearly reflected back by the retro reflectors which is a man made item, proving that man set foot on the moon.

The Lunar Ranging Experiment by P.L. Bender et. al. : This is an original paper from around the first time the Lunar Ranging Experiment was tested. This paper gave me very helpful information on how the experiment was conducted (specifically about the pulse, size, and location of the laser, etc.)

Apollo 11, Apollo 14, Apollo 15 These three links include the original NASA Apollo mission information. It includes a Profile, Description, and analysis of the Surface Experiments Package (EASEP) for each mission.

NGSLR: This is a powerpoint that goes over NASA's Next Generation Satellite Laser Ranging System. This is important for my project because it relates the lunar ranging experiments with something that is a little more current. It also has very detailed guides to how the physical laser, telescope, and detectors work.

High-Precision Measurement of the Earth-Moon Distance by M. Schneider et. al.: This is a paper that outlines some of the challenges that are involved with the Lunar Ranging Experiments. Specifically it analyzes the data concerning the dynamics of the Earth-Moon system especially by the description with the gravity theory of Einstein. The part of this paper that I found most helpful was "The Measurement Process" because it included specific numeric information about the photons sent out by the laser, etc.

Measuring Laser Power and Energy Output: This document has the equations to calculate power and energy output for a laser, as well as examples for each one. It also goes through certain instruments and their specific properties (such as laser type, power range, wavelength range, etc.).