1. Free-flight experiments in LISA Pathfinder
- Author
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C. Trenkel, F. Martin-Porqueras, J. Baird, Nikolaos Karnesis, Lluis Gesa, R. Gerndt, Paul McNamara, A. Bursi, A. Moroni, G. Auger, Curt Cutler, Karsten Danzmann, James Ira Thorpe, Valerio Ferroni, Gerhard Heinzel, C. Zanoni, Ian Harrison, R. Maarschalkerweerd, B. Johlander, Carlos F. Sopuerta, Michael Perreur-Lloyd, Rita Dolesi, R. Giusteri, M. Born, A. Schleicher, Daniele Vetrugno, N. Dunbar, P. Sarra, Luis Mendes, Peter Wass, Daniel Hollington, T. J. Sumner, Eric Plagnol, C. García Marirrodriga, B. Kaune, A. Wittchen, H. Rozemeijer, U. Ragnit, N. Brandt, H. Ward, S. Madden, D. Wealthy, Ingo Diepholz, P. Prat, P. Pivato, Mauro Hueller, H. B. Tu, Víctor S. Martín, Ewan Fitzsimons, Antonella Cavalleri, S. Paczkowski, Jacob Slutsky, M. Cruise, Michele Armano, Pierre Binetruy, J. A. Romera Perez, Davor Mance, José F. F. Mendes, Gudrun Wanner, Stefano Vitale, Juan Ramos-Castro, Philippe Jetzer, W. J. Weber, M. Freschi, Ivan Lloro, D. Texier, Domenico Giardini, S. Waschke, Antoine Petiteau, J. Huesler, J. Reiche, Oliver Jennrich, A. Cesarini, G. Russano, Tobias Ziegler, N. Korsakova, Peter Zweifel, H. Inchauspe, Catia Grimani, P. Maghami, Heather Audley, S. Wen, M. Caleno, D. I. Robertson, Christian J. Killow, Martin Hewitson, Luigi Ferraioli, Ignacio Mateos, Daniele Bortoluzzi, Miquel Nofrarías, J. Gallegos, and Ferran Gibert
- Subjects
History ,Inertial frame of reference ,Testing ,Orbits ,General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology ,LISA Pathfinder ,Gravitational wave detectors ,Primary (astronomy) ,Free flight ,Spacecraft ,Dewey Decimal Classification::500 | Naturwissenschaften ,Physics ,Noise source ,Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Flight experiments ,Computer Science Applications ,Drag ,Tracking (position) ,Physics::Space Physics ,Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,ddc:500 ,Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Space probes ,realizations ,Gravitation ,spaced data ,On-orbit performance ,spectral-analysis ,FOS: Physical sciences ,General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) ,Gravity waves ,Education ,Acceleration ,Space-based ,Mission requirements ,ddc:530 ,Aerospace engineering ,Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) ,Konferenzschrift ,algorithm ,business.industry ,Gravitational wave ,Noise ,Pathfinder ,Potential sources ,Dewey Decimal Classification::500 | Naturwissenschaften::530 | Physik ,business - Abstract
The LISA Pathfinder mission will demonstrate the technology of drag-free test masses for use as inertial references in future space-based gravitational wave detectors. To accomplish this, the Pathfinder spacecraft will perform drag-free flight about a test mass while measuring the acceleration of this primary test mass relative to a second reference test mass. Because the reference test mass is contained within the same spacecraft, it is necessary to apply forces on it to maintain its position and attitude relative to the spacecraft. These forces are a potential source of acceleration noise in the LISA Pathfinder system that are not present in the full LISA configuration. While LISA Pathfinder has been designed to meet it's primary mission requirements in the presence of this noise, recent estimates suggest that the on-orbit performance may be limited by this `suspension noise'. The drift-mode or free-flight experiments provide an opportunity to mitigate this noise source and further characterize the underlying disturbances that are of interest to the designers of LISA-like instruments. This article provides a high-level overview of these experiments and the methods under development to analyze the resulting data., 13 pages, 5 figures. Accepted to Journal Of Physics, Conference Series. Presented at 10th International LISA Symposium, May 2014, Gainesville, FL, USA
- Published
- 2015
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