Relative deformations of selenodetic nets of coordinates

One of the main problems of selenodesy consists of the construction of a net of basic reference points on the surface of the Moon. At present there exist many catalogues containing the coordinates of selected objects on the Moon. These catalogues differ by the presence of both systematic and accidental errors.The investigations concerning the comparison of catalogues and the elucidation of their systematic differences are of very recent date. Various methods of interpretation of the systematic differences between catalogues have been proposed. Without an attempt to encompass the whole problem in what follows, we shall describe one method for comparative study of catalogues based on the theory of the deformation of continuous media.