The LISA Pathfinder Mission

LISA Pathfinder (formerly known as SMART-2) is an European Space Agency mission designed to pave the way for the joint ESA/NASA Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission by testing in flight the critical technologies required for space-borne gravitational wave detection; it will put two test masses in a near-perfect gravitational free-fall and control and measure their motion with unprecedented accuracy. This is achieved through technology comprising inertial sensors, high precision laser metrology, drag-free control, and an ultra precise micro-Newton propulsion system. LISA Pathfinder (LPF) essentially mimics one arm of spaceborne gravitational wave detectors by shrinking the million kilometre scale armlengths down to a few tens of centimetres, giving up the sensitivity to gravitational waves, but keeping the measurement technology. The scientific objective of the LISA Pathfinder mission consists then of the first in-flight test of low frequency gravitational wave detection metrology. In this paper I will give a brief overview of the mission, focusing on scientific and technical goals.