#chandrayan3 #nasa #isro NASA’s Chandrayaan-3 payload to work after Vikram, Pragyan sleeps. LRA to help future missions. The Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA), the fourth payload Chandrayaan-3 lander Vikram took to the lunar surface, will start its work once the rest of its onboard instruments and two on Pragyan go to sleep, at the end of the lunar day. LRA is designed to use reflected laser light from orbiting spacecraft laser — typically a laser altimeter or light detection and ranging (lidar) — to precisely determine the location of the lander, as a fiducial (assumed as a fixed basis of comparison) marker, and the distance to that point on the lunar surface with respect to the orbiter. To Prevent Interference: David R Williams, acting head, NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive, told TOI: “LRA is not planned to be used for ranging until after the Chandrayaan mission is complete.” Image credit:NASA-GSFC