Relativistic spin effects in the Earth-Moon system

Relativistic precession and nutation effects applied to the Earth and Moon coordinate systems are discussed in detail. Apart from the effects common to the two reference systems (including the well-known geodetic precession), the lunar reference frame undergoes an additional precession of 28.9 millarc sec/century. This value is theoretically within the range of the lunar laser ranging (LLR) technique in the forthcoming years, but impossible to decorrelate from other secular effects of selenophysical origin. Because of a nearly perfect cancellation of the de Sitter and Lense-Thirring phenomena, additional nutations of the lunar referential are below the sensitivity of the LLR. An analogous cancellation occurs also for the secular part of the Lense-Thirring precession of the Earth-Moon referentials. A terminological ambiguity of the geodetic precession constant notion, related to the inclusion of some of the Lense-Thirring Germs, is pointed out.