Laser instrument on NASA’s LRO successfully pings Indian moon lander

⬇️ Pidgin | ⬇️ ⬇️ English

Da Moon Get Laser-Tagged: Oreo-Sized Gizmo Hit by NASA’s Magic Light! Eh braddahs and sistahs, guess what? We got some moonlight action happenin’ up there in da sky, and it ain’t no ordinary moonlight, it’s laser moonlight! 🌕💥 NASA, da big space kine guys, dey wen shoot laser beams at da moon, and guess what? Da moon wen shoot ’em back! 🚀🔦 So, dis all started on August 23, 2023, when ISRO’s Vikram lander from India wen touch down on da moon, and guess what again? It had one Oreo-sized ting on top wit NASA’s magic mirror inside. 🇮🇳🚀🍪 Four days aftah dat, NASA’s fancy camera from da LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) wen snap one pic of Vikram and da moon’s sandy surface. You can see Vikram right in da middle, casting one dark shadow on da moon’s halo – like da moon had one fancy aura goin’ on. 📸🌌 So why all dis laser action? Well, da halo, dat bright ring ’round Vikram, it happened ’cause of da rocket plume wen mix it up wit da moon’s sandy soil (we call ’em regolith). It’s like da moon got all dressed up for da laser party! 💃🌕 Now, da pic dat LRO took, it show one piece of da moon dat’s 1 mile wide, dat’s ’bout 1.7 kilometers fo’ you metric folks. So, dat’s da setup, now let’s get into da juicy details! 👀 First time evah, dey wen shoot one laser beam from LRO and wen bounce ’em off dat Oreo-sized ting on Vikram. Imagine tryna hit one bullseye from space, dat’s what dey wen do! 🎯 Dis happened ’round 3 p.m. EST on December 12, 2023. LRO wen point its fancy laser thingy at Vikram when it was ’bout 62 miles away, or 100 kilometers, near Manzinus crater – dat’s da moon’s south pole area. 🌙🎯 So, da laser beams wen shoot out from LRO, and dey bounced back from dat tiny NASA mirror on Vikram. Scientists back on Earth, dey saw da light come back, and dey knew dey had somethin’ special. 🌌🔦🌍 You see, usually, dey use laser beams to track stuff in space, like satellites and stuff, but dis time, dey wen flip da script! Instead of tracking from da ground, dey wen do it from space, lookin’ down at da moon. 🌍🚀 One of da scientists, Xiaoli Sun, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, he said, “We’ve showed that we can locate our retroreflector on the surface from the moon’s orbit.” 🤙🌌 He also said, “Da next step is to improve da technique so dat it can become routine for missions dat want to use dese retroreflectors in da future.” So, dey ain’t stoppin’ here, dey wanna get even bettah at it! 🚀🌕 Now, let’s talk ’bout dis magic mirror on Vikram. Dis ting, it’s like da size of an Oreo, but instead of cream in da middle, it’s got eight quartz-corner-cube prisms inside one dome-shaped frame made of aluminum. 😮🔮🍪 Dis mirror is simple but tough, like one true local braddah. It don’t need power or any kind of maintenance, and it can last for many, many years. And da best part – it can reflect light from any direction back to where it came from! 🌟🌠 So, what’s da big deal ’bout dese mirrors? Well, dey can do all kine stuff in space science and exploration. Dey been usin’ mirrors like dese since da Apollo days, you know, when we wen send da first guys up there. 🌠🚀 By reflectin’ da light back to Earth, dey wen find out dat da moon stay movin’ away from us – like it’s taking one step back every year, ’bout 1.5 inches or 3.8 centimeters. So, da moon playin’ hard to get! 🌙🚀🌍 Now, dis new generation of mirrors, dey even bettah. Dey use ’em on da International Space Station to help dem deliver stuff to da station all by itself – no pilot needed! 🛰️🏢 In da future, dey could use dese mirrors to help Artemis astronauts land on da moon, even when it’s dark outside. Or dey could use ’em to mark da spot for spacecraft already chillin’ on da moon’s surface. So, plenty potential, brah! 🌛🚀🌠 But hold up, not so fast, there’s still work to do. Da biggest problem right now is dat LRO’s laser thingy, called LOLA, it’s da only one up there shootin’ lasers at da moon. But LOLA, it wasn’t designed to hit one target like Vikram’s mirror – it’s been mappin’ da moon’s topography all dese years. 📡🌍 One of da NASA guys, Daniel Cremons, he said, “We would like LOLA to point to dis Oreo-sized target and hit it every time, which is hard.” Yeah, no kidding, braddah! It took ’em eight tries to hit Vikram’s mirror! 🎯🎲 So, here’s da deal with LOLA. It shoots out five laser beams at once, and den it times how long it takes for each one to bounce back. Da faster da light comes back, da closer LOLA is to da moon’s surface – dat’s how dey make dem elevation maps. 📡🌌 But here’s da catch – da beams, dey cover one area ’bout 32 feet wide from ’bout 62 miles up in da sky. And ’cause da moon’s surface got all dese ups and downs, da beams gotta be far apart. So, da chance of hittin’ dat tiny mirror on Vikram, it’s like tryna find one needle in one haystack. 🌾🔍 So, altimeters like LOLA, dey great for findin’ big stuff like craters and rocks, but dey not so good at pinpointin’ one tiny target like Vikram’s mirror. Dey gotta come up with one new laser, one dat sweeps across da surface without missin’ any spots. 🎯🌌 For now, da NASA team, dey gonna keep usin’ LOLA to help figure out where stuff is on da moon, especially landers like Vikram. Dey still gotta work out da kinks. 🌕🚀🛰️ But guess what? More of dese NASA mirrors gonna fly to da moon on diff’rent landers, public and private ones. JAXA, dat’s Japan’s space folks, dey gonna send one to da moon on January 19, 2024. And Intuitive Machines, one private company, dey gonna launch deir spacecraft to da moon in mid-February wit six NASA payloads, includin’ one mirror. 🚀🌕🇯🇵📡 So, dat’s da scoop, braddahs and sistahs! Da moon, it got tagged wit laser beams, and da future lookin’ bright – or should I say, moonlit! 🌙✨🚀

NOW IN ENGLISH

Laser instrument on NASA’s LRO successfully pings Indian moon lander

Title: NASA Shoots Laser Beams at Moon: Oreo-Sized Device Hits Back! Hey there, folks! Guess what’s happening up there in the night sky? It’s not your ordinary moonlight; it’s laser moonlight! NASA, the big players in space exploration, decided to shoot laser beams at the moon, and you won’t believe what happened next! This exciting story begins on August 23, 2023, when India’s ISRO’s Vikram lander touched down on the lunar surface. But here’s the kicker – it had a tiny device the size of an Oreo on top, and inside that device was NASA’s magical mirror. Fast forward four days, NASA’s high-tech camera aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) snapped a picture of Vikram on the moon’s sandy terrain. In the image, Vikram is right in the center, casting a distinct shadow that gives the moon a unique aura. Now, let’s talk about why all this laser action is taking place. That glowing ring around Vikram, called the halo, was created when the rocket plume mixed with the moon’s sandy soil, also known as regolith. It’s as if the moon got all dressed up for the laser party! The LRO’s photo captured a portion of the moon that’s a whopping 1 mile wide (approximately 1.7 kilometers for our metric friends). So, that’s the setup; now let’s dive into the fascinating details! For the first time ever, NASA decided to shoot a laser beam from the LRO and bounce it off that Oreo-sized device on Vikram. Imagine trying to hit a bullseye from space – that’s exactly what they did! This remarkable event occurred around 3 p.m. EST on December 12, 2023. The LRO aimed its sophisticated laser device at Vikram when it was about 62 miles away (or 100 kilometers) near the Manzinus crater, which is in the moon’s south pole area. The laser beams shot out from the LRO and bounced back from the tiny NASA mirror on Vikram. Back on Earth, scientists observed the returning light and knew they had something special on their hands. Typically, laser beams are used to track objects in space, such as satellites. However, this time, they decided to flip the script. Instead of tracking from the ground, they did it from space, looking down at the moon. One of the scientists, Xiaoli Sun, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said, “We’ve showed that we can locate our retroreflector on the surface from the moon’s orbit.” He also added, “The next step is to improve the technique so that it can become routine for missions that want to use these retroreflectors in the future.” They are not stopping here; they want to get even better at it! Now, let’s discuss this magical mirror on Vikram. It’s roughly the size of an Oreo, but instead of cream, it contains eight quartz-corner-cube prisms inside a dome-shaped aluminum frame. This mirror is simple yet robust, requiring no power or maintenance, and it can reflect light from any direction back to its source. So, what’s the big deal about these mirrors? Well, they have a wide range of applications in space science and exploration. Mirrors like these have been used since the Apollo missions, helping scientists discover that the moon is gradually moving away from Earth, about 1.5 inches or 3.8 centimeters each year. The moon seems to be playing hard to get! These new-generation mirrors have even more potential. They are used on the International Space Station to facilitate autonomous spacecraft deliveries – no human pilot needed! In the future, they could assist Artemis astronauts in landing on the moon, even in the dark. They could also mark locations for spacecraft already stationed on the lunar surface. There’s a lot of potential here! However, there’s still work to be done. The biggest challenge right now is that the LRO’s laser device, known as LOLA, is the only one up there shooting lasers at the moon. But LOLA wasn’t designed to target objects like Vikram’s mirror; it’s been busy mapping the moon’s topography for years. One of the NASA scientists, Daniel Cremons, pointed out, “We would like LOLA to point to this Oreo-sized target and hit it every time, which is hard.” It indeed proved to be a challenge; it took them eight attempts to hit Vikram’s mirror! Here’s how LOLA works: it shoots out five laser beams simultaneously and measures the time it takes for each beam to bounce back. The faster the light returns, the closer LOLA is to the moon’s surface – that’s how they create elevation maps. However, the catch is that these beams cover an area approximately 32 feet wide from a height of about 62 miles in the sky. Due to the moon’s varied surface, the beams have to be spread apart, making it akin to searching for a needle in a haystack when trying to hit Vikram’s tiny mirror. For now, the NASA team will continue using LOLA to pinpoint the locations of objects on the moon’s surface, especially landers like Vikram. They still need to iron out the kinks. But guess what? More of these NASA mirrors will be sent to the moon on various landers, both public and private. Japan’s space agency, JAXA, is set to send one on January 19, 2024, and Intuitive Machines, a private company, will launch their spacecraft to the moon in mid-February, carrying six NASA payloads, including a mirror. So, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen! The moon has been tagged with laser beams, and the future of lunar exploration is looking bright – or should we say, moonlit! ✨