A One-Way Light Beam Experiment

A one-way light experiment has been recently designed and implemented to determine the displacement of a light beam after traveling a straight path of sixty meters as a function of time. The primary goal of this experiment is to determine the affect of the earth's motion on the propagation of light from a source to a sensor both of which are stationary in the laboratory frame of reference. Progressive improvements to the inital design over the past three months have resulted in angular measurements with nanoradian resolution. Beam position data and environmental data along the path are being collected over time periods of several days. Additional improvements to the apparatus are being considered. A detailed description of the experiment and its operation is given. Also presented are (1) the data collected during the development phase and (2) the results from a preliminary analysis of these data.