Darmstadt 2008 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 3: Präzisionsmessungen und Metrologie I

Q 3.3: Group Report

Monday, March 10, 2008, 15:00–15:30, 3D

LISA Pathfinder: spaceborne testbed towards millihertz gravitational wave astronomy — •Felipe Guzman Cervantes¹, Frank Steier¹, Antonio Francisco Garcia Marin¹, Michael Troebs¹, Anneke Monsky¹, Martin Hewitson¹, Gudrun Wanner¹, Ingo Diepholz¹, Oliver Jennrich², Gerhard Heinzel¹, and Karsten Danzmann¹ — ¹Albert-Einstein-Institut Hannover — ²ESA-ESTEC

LISA Pathfinder is a ESA technology demonstration mission planned to be launched in 2010 to test LISA core technologies that cannot be tested on ground. The LISA Pathfinder satellite carries two experiments: the LISA Technology Package (LTP) from ESA, and the Disturbance Reduction Noise (DRS) from NASA. The LISA Technology Package will primarly demonstrate test mass drag-free control and isolation to better than 3× 10⁻¹⁴ ms⁻²/√Hz, and spacecraft control with micronewton thrusters. A set of 4 heterodyne Mach-Zehnder interferometers is utilized for the read out of test mass displacement and rotation to better than 10 pm/√Hz and 10 nrad/√Hz in the frequency range from 3-30 mHz respectively. Currently we are testing engineering models of different subsystems and preparing a test bed for investigations on flight hardware. This talk presents the current status in the development and implementation of the LISA Technology Package and a series of tests conducted as software and hardware simulations for on-orbit operation.