Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

LRA (Laser Retroreflector Array) is a collection of eight retroreflectors that enable precise measurements of the distance between the orbiting or landing spacecraft and the lander.
Image credit: NASA/GSFC

In the future, rocketing in and precisely alighting on the moon’s craggy, rocky and crater-pocked face won’t be as hard.

NASA’s Lunar Retroreflector Array (LRA) program is engaged with U.S. and foreign lunar lander initiatives. An LRA is a dome-shaped device, topped by small glass corner cube prism retroreflectors. That contrivance is then mounted to a moon lander.

An LRA consists of eight tiny retroreflectors mounted on a small, high hemispherical platform.
Image credit: NASA TV/Space.com screengrab

Dotting the lunar landscape

The LRA can bounce laser light from other orbiting and incoming spacecraft, functioning as a permanent location marker on the moon for decades to come.

But dotting the lunar landscape with these devices has been a tough row to hoe.

For more information, go to my new Space.com story – “NASA’s Lunar Retroreflector Network could make landing on the moon much easier” at:

https://www.space.com/the-universe/moon/nasas-lunar-retroreflector-network-could-make-landing-on-the-moon-much-easier