Abstract
The technique of lunar laser ranging (LLR) has for many decades contributed to cutting-edge tests of the fundamental nature of gravity. These include the best tests to date of the strong equivalence principle, the time-rate-of-change of the gravitational constant, gravitomagnetism, the inverse square law, and preferred frame effects. The phenomenologies of each are briefly discussed, followed by an extended discussion of gravitomagnetism. Finally, the new APOLLO project is summarized, which achieves range precision as low as one millimeter.
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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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Murphy, T.W. Lunar Ranging, Gravitomagnetism, and APOLLO. Space Sci Rev 148, 217–223 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-009-9491-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-009-9491-z