above: "This computer-generated image depicts the Chandrayaan-1's location at time it was detected by the Goldstone Solar System radar on July 2, 2016. The 120-mile (200-kilometer) wide purple circle represents the width of the Goldstone radar beam at lunar distance. The white box in the upper-right corner of the animation depicts the strength of echo. Inside the radar beam (purple circle), the echo from the spacecraft alternated between being very strong and very weak, as the radar beam scattered from the flat metal surfaces." Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. From here
Note that for optical tracking, a "passive reflector" would be a corner-cube retroreflector, or array thereof. There are several old ones on the Moon for tracking the Moon itself left by Soviet and US missions, and Beresheet had one as well though it is probably not operational.
It's possible future lunar satellites will cary retroreflectors as well. A solar sail put in LEO had one, as do some large communications satellites
- Could Beresheet's retroreflector array (still) be used?
- Could Schiaparelli's retroreflector array (still) be used?
- What is this retroreflector on the Mars InSight lander used for?
- How will the corner cube retroreflector array be used on Sentinel 3B?
- What exactly is a "Next Generation Lunar Reflector"? Difference in design and performance?
- How will The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 Spacecraft's retroreflectors be used?
- Planetary Society's LightSail Spacecraft's corner cube reflectors; how large, and corrected for aberration?
above: "This computer-generated image depicts the Chandrayaan-1's location at time it was detected by the Goldstone Solar System radar on July 2, 2016. The 120-mile (200-kilometer) wide purple circle represents the width of the Goldstone radar beam at lunar distance. The white box in the upper-right corner of the animation depicts the strength of echo. Inside the radar beam (purple circle), the echo from the spacecraft alternated between being very strong and very weak, as the radar beam scattered from the flat metal surfaces." Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. From here