101. LISA Pathfinder platform stability and drag-free performance
- Author
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N. Korsakova, Gerhard Heinzel, Michele Armano, Ian Harrison, M. Freschi, Henri Inchauspe, R. Giusteri, Ph. Jetzer, M. de Deus Silva, Domenico Giardini, J. P. López-Zaragoza, Rita Dolesi, J. Baird, J. Grzymisch, H. Ward, W. J. Weber, Ferran Gibert, F. Martin-Porqueras, Daniele Vetrugno, E. D. Fitzsimons, F. Rivas, Peter Wass, S. Paczkowski, Jacob Slutsky, L. Martin-Polo, Valerio Ferroni, Luigi Ferraioli, D. Hoyland, L. Wissel, P. Zweifel, James Ira Thorpe, Oliver Jennrich, Antonella Cavalleri, Gudrun Wanner, M. Hueller, N. Meshksar, L. Mendes, P. Pivato, Juan Ramos-Castro, Karsten Danzmann, Davor Mance, J. Martino, A. M. Cruise, D. Bortoluzzi, Nikolaos Karnesis, Michael Perreur-Lloyd, Miquel Nofrarías, José F. F. Mendes, Antoine Petiteau, D. Texier, Paul McNamara, M. Born, M. Hewitson, Carlos F. Sopuerta, Lluis Gesa, B. Kaune, Ingo Diepholz, R. Maarschalkerweerd, A. Wittchen, Eric Plagnol, Víctor S. Martín, Catia Grimani, Ivan Lloro, J. Reiche, A. Cesarini, G. Russano, D. I. Robertson, Daniel Hollington, S. Vitale, T. J. Sumner, L. Liu, E. Castelli, J. A. Lobo, Christian J. Killow, G. Dixon, Pierre Binétruy, Heather Audley, Ignacio Mateos, LISA Pathfinder Collaboration, Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), AstroParticule et Cosmologie (APC (UMR_7164)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Paris (UP), LISA Pathfinder, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University (PSL)-PSL Research University (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica, and Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité)
- Subjects
Astrofísica ,noise ,Gravitational-wave observatory ,Geodesic ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astronomy & Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,01 natural sciences ,Noise (electronics) ,Star tracker ,Gravitational waves ,Physics, Particles & Fields ,Attitude control ,cosmic rays ,0103 physical sciences ,Experiments in gravity ,[PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-INS-DET]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Instrumentation and Detectors [physics.ins-det] ,Aerospace engineering ,010306 general physics ,Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) ,Physics ,LISA ,Science & Technology ,Spacecraft ,010308 nuclear & particles physics ,Gravitational wave ,business.industry ,stability ,Pathfinder ,Física::Astronomia i astrofísica [Àrees temàtiques de la UPC] ,Physical Sciences ,business ,Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,cosmology ,geodesic ,performance - Abstract
The science operations of the LISA Pathfinder mission has demonstrated the feasibility of sub-femto-g free-fall of macroscopic test masses necessary to build a LISA-like gravitational wave observatory in space. While the main focus of interest, i.e. the optical axis or the $x$-axis, has been extensively studied, it is also of interest to evaluate the stability of the spacecraft with respect to all the other degrees of freedom. The current paper is dedicated to such a study, with a focus set on an exhaustive and quantitative evaluation of the imperfections and dynamical effects that impact the stability with respect to its local geodesic. A model of the complete closed-loop system provides a comprehensive understanding of each part of the in-loop coordinates spectra. As will be presented, this model gives very good agreements with LISA Pathfinder flight data. It allows one to identify the physical noise source at the origin and the physical phenomena underlying the couplings. From this, the performances of the stability of the spacecraft, with respect to its geodesic, are extracted as a function of frequency. Close to $1 mHz$, the stability of the spacecraft on the $X_{SC}$, $Y_{SC}$ and $Z_{SC}$ degrees of freedom is shown to be of the order of $5.0\ 10^{-15} m\ s^{-2}/\sqrt{Hz}$ for X and $4.0 \ 10^{-14} m\ s^{-2}/\sqrt{Hz}$ for Y and Z. For the angular degrees of freedom, the values are of the order $3\ 10^{-12} rad\ s^{-2}/\sqrt{Hz}$ for $\Theta_{SC}$ and $3\ 10^{-13} rad\ s^{-2}/\sqrt{Hz}$ for $H_{SC}$ and $\Phi_{SC}$., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures
- Published
- 2019