The lunar laser ranging: operation and science

The advent of optical range measurements on the Moon was made possible 30 years ago with the direct exploration of the Moon with manned or automatic missions which placed several arrays of corner cube reflectors on the lunar surface. Over the last thirty years the precision has regularly improved from the similar to 0.25 m range in 1970 to an internal precision of the order of one centimeter today and a post-fit accuracy of 3 cm. The principles are summarized in a first part of the paper, followed by an estimate of the error budget. Statistics of the data produced are then given and show the major role fulfilled today by the French station. A section is devoted to the data analysis together with a summary of the major scientific results obtained in selenodesy and fundamental physics. New prospects are opened with a discussion of the the possibility of ranging more efficiently with transponders on the Moon. (C) 2000 Academie des sciences/Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.