Can you actually do this?(laser shooting to moon)

supernova1203

Found this on youtube, wasnt sure if this is actually possible, i never heard of the astronauts actually leaving stuff on the moon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e5CtbbZL-k

Jimmy

Yes, it's possible- and it's been done.

http://funphysics.jpl.nasa.gov/techn...nar-laser.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_L...ing_experiment

turbo

Yes. If you leave a mirrored target shaped like the intersection of 3 walls of a cube, the light will come directly back to the area from which the pulse was fired.

Drakkith

Look up the apollo missions on wikipedia. You can find plenty of info on the experiments left behind.

Jobrag

It's a good point to mention to Apollo hoax believers, they tend to start mumbling when you point out that there is proof that stuff was left behind.

cuad

Jobrag, they'd respond with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rvmBEsTcoU&t=05m59s

Summary: National Geographic and the New York Times both report, years before apollo 11, that the US and the Soviet Union were bouncing lasers off the moon.

leprechaun0

Yes it is incredible, even 40 years later. As a consequence Nasa can measure the moon's distance to millimeter resolution( maybe more , not sure). They also use it to help calculate the orbit of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. I have to assume it has been used to impress a woman at one point in time also.

Chronos

But, not with the precision achievable with LLRE. It's been nailed down to a matter of millimeters now.