Is it true that a ruby laser was used to scan the Moon surface from Earth to accurately map its topography?

Yes! In 1961, in the USSR. Prof. Kh.S. Bagdasarov, A member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, chief of High temperature laboratory (Institute of Crystallography Academy of Sciences of the USSR) received an award for being the first person to scan the moons from the Earths surface. He not only scanned the surface but he accurately mapped the topography of the surface, a revolutionary scientific concept at the time.

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Synthetic sapphire and science
Is it true that a ruby laser was used to scan the Moon surface from Earth to accurately map its topography?
Hi, I work in a lab and we will be working with sapphire at low temperatures. Our apparatus will be going under different stresses and I was wondering what type of stresses and strain it can take at temperatures down less than 4K. I have been looking for elastic moduli figures, but I can't find any values for sapphire less than room temperature. As a company that deals with sapphire for optics and mechanical purposes, I was wondering if you had any information?
I am an independent consultant looking at failures of sapphire glass tubes. Micro cracking have been experienced in sapphire tubes during the plasma etch process. Do you have any technical literature on this failure mechanism? I'm touching base with many sapphire tube suppliers. I'm not looking to point the fingure an anyone. I'm just collecting information and comming up to speed on this type of failure.
However, when I investigated thermal expansion and contraction issues, a couple sapphire fabricators stated that they can heat the glass up to red hot and drop it in water without it cracking. They also mentioned another failure mode having to do with surface etching and surface fractures from the plasma. They have a very technical name for it and I can't remember what it was called. Do you have anything idea of this surface etching phenomena?

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