Interests of a new lunar laser instrumentation on the ESO NTT Telescope

TL;DR

Installing a lunar laser ranging device on the ESO NTT Telescope enhances scientific research in fundamental physics and solar system formation, providing a valuable southern hemisphere station that complements existing northern hemisphere facilities.

Contribution

This paper analyzes the technical and scientific benefits of installing a lunar laser ranging instrument on the ESO NTT Telescope, highlighting its potential to advance lunar and fundamental physics research.

Findings

Provides a southern hemisphere LLR station for the first time.

Enhances capabilities for lunar and fundamental physics studies.

Complements existing northern hemisphere LLR facilities.

Abstract

We analyze the impact of the installation of a lunar laser ranging device on the NTT 3.6m ESO telescope. With such an instrument, the scientific communities of fundamental physics and solar system formation will highly benefit of the only LLR station in the Southern Hemisphere. The quality of the NTT 3.6 meter telescope will also greatly complement the LLR 3.5 meter Apache Point telescope (3.5 m) instrument in the Northern Hemisphere (USA) which is the best instrument for tracking the Moon since 2006. Finally, we also consider the technical characteristics of such installation including the observational constraints.