Why Do We Shoot the Moon With Lasers?

Did you know we shoot the moon with Lasers? But why?

What is the best proof that astronauts landed on the Moon?

The answer has to do with space lasers.

During some of the Apollo missions, a series of retroreflectors were left on the lunar surface. These highly reflective devices allow for more accurate measurement of the distance to the Moon than bouncing radio waves off the lunar surface.

Observatories on Earth can target these reflectors with powerful lasers and then send pulses of laser light to the Moon and back. By accurately measuring the roundtrip time, the distance from the Earth to the Moon can be calculated.

If those reflectors weren’t there, the return signal on the lasers would be virtually nonexistent, and even with them present only one photon out of billions and billions is generally detected, recognizable by the very specific wavelength of light.

The experiment works, and small fluctuations in the distance can be measured with up to millimeter accuracy. That’s like measuring the distance between New York and Los Angeles to the width of a human hair.

Not only is it cool that people went to the moon, but we can prove it by shooting at the Moon with space lasers.

#shorts

All Apollo image and video credit: NASA

[grumpus_hominidae]

I love this. I absolutely despise the idiots who say we didn't go, and that the moon isn't real, and the ones who say the Earth is flat. I used to involve myself in those debates, but at some point, I realized I was trying to change the minds of, or convince, ignorant-on-purpose people. One has to make a conscious choice to be so ignorant.

[abiabi]

"Shooting the moon with a laser" is the most human thing I have ever heard.

[axax]

This is the only part of the Apollo mission still operational after nearly 60 years.

[matthewtheobald]

To me it's a huge complement to NASA that some people still don't believe we landed on the Moon. It was such an amazing accomplishment that it is literally unbelievable to some

[charliepinger]

You don’t need proof, you literally just know, cuz where else would the Saturn five go. It’s huge.

[fireredgaming]

Man: Just shine a laser at the moon, it will come back
Moon landing denier: No! there will just be someone shining it back!
Man: Bruh

[XPrototype]

Could have picked literally 500 reasons why it happened. Idiots will be idiots

[NoosaHeads]

But the conspiracy theorists will just say that it's all a con and that the lasers don't exist.
Nobody should even dignify these people with a response. It's demeaning to the hard work scientists put into the project.

[slither]

We legit got a video of the whole thing but It’s not enough for some people

[Ultimathule]

The first successful lunar ranging tests were carried out in 1962 well before Apollo missions, when Louis Smullin and Giorgio Fiocco from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology succeeded in observing laser pulses reflected from the Moon's surface using a laser with a 50J 0.5 millisecond pulse length. Similar measurements were obtained later the same year by a Soviet team at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory using a Q-switched ruby laser.

[scott_meyer]

Unfortunately this is not proof of men landing on the Moon. I do realize there were 6 successful missions landing men on the Moon.
However, the Soviets also have placed retroreflectors on the Moon on the tops of unmanned landers.

[fajar]

Imagine shining a laser at the moon and some random tech just pops up a reading

[someone-hwqc]

I love space so much I want to be like you

[jeremytheimer]

Also with the lunar reconasaince orbiters that can resolve trails of footprints given how close they are. You can't see much detail in the prints but you can see where the astronauts walked.

[tomwery]

Last time i " shot the moon" I blamed it on Budweiser😬

[mig_bison]

And that has proved moon is moving away 1.5" Per year...

[Vikanuck]

“The fact that we can do this proves that there are manmade objects on the moon, put there by a species that only 60 years before had just invented the airplane”

- Leonard Hofstadter

Lol I friggin love that quote.

[Freezercool]

Does that really prove we went to the moon though? I mean we’ve sent like 5 rovers to mars and nobody has been to mars yet. Reflectors on the moon doesn’t really prove we’ve been there. We could have just sent them there. Just sayin

[RobertOrgRobert]

“ it is easier to go to the Moon than trying to fake it “ !
Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson

[WT-Mudhen]

True. They even showed this on Big Bang Theory of all places . Very cool.