Reduction, analysis and application of one-way laser ranging data from ILRS ground stations to LRO

One-way LR (Laser Ranging) is being performed routinely from ILRS (International Laser Ranging Service) ground stations to LOLA (Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter), onboard NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter). We developed software to process this novel type of tracking data and perform a preliminary analysis. By incorporating the high accuracy spacecraft range measurements into orbit determination one expects the positioning and thereby the accuracy of further derived data products to improve. We used the one-way LR measurements within the estimation software TUDAT for doing an orbit determination of LRO. To select a certain timeframe we looked at the size of the jumps at the LRO SPK (Spacecraft Positioning Kernel) merge points and the tracking data coverage, quality and quantity. Furthermore the results taken from the preliminary analysis were used for various inputs into the estimation.