We report on the first subpicometer interferometer flown in space. It was part of ESA’s Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Pathfinder mission and performed the fundamental measurement of the ...positional and angular motion of two free-falling test masses. The interferometer worked immediately, stably, and reliably from switch on until the end of the mission with exceptionally low residual noise of 32.0 (+2.4, −1.7) fm/(√Hz), significantly better than required. We present an upper limit for the sensor performance at millihertz frequencies and a model for the measured sensitivity above 200 mHz.
Micrometeoroid Events in LISA Pathfinder Slutsky, J.; Baker, John G.; Littenberg, Tyson B. ...
Astrophysical journal/The Astrophysical journal,
09/2019, Letnik:
883, Številka:
1
Journal Article, Publication
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The zodiacal dust complex, a population of dust and small particles that pervades the solar system, provides important insight into the formation and dynamics of planets, comets, asteroids, and other ...bodies. We present a new set of data obtained from direct measurements of momentum transfer to a spacecraft from individual particle impacts. This technique is made possible by the extreme precision of the instruments flown on the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, a technology demonstrator for a future space-based gravitational wave observatory. Pathfinder employed a technique known as drag-free control that achieved rejection of external disturbances, including particle impacts, using a micropropulsion system. Using a simple model of the impacts and knowledge of the control system, we show that it is possible to detect impacts and measure properties such as the transferred momentum, direction of travel, and location of impact on the spacecraft. In this paper, we present the results of a systematic search for impacts during 4348 hr of Pathfinder data. We report a total of 54 candidates with transferred momenta ranging from 0.2 to 230 Ns. We furthermore make a comparison of these candidates with models of micrometeoroid populations in the inner solar system, including those resulting from Jupiter-family comets (JFCs), Oort Cloud comets, Halley-type comets, and asteroids. We find that our measured population is consistent with a population dominated by JFCs, with some evidence for a smaller contribution from Halley-type comets, in agreement with consensus models of the zodiacal dust complex in the momentum range sampled by LISA Pathfinder.
The LISA Pathfinder mission Antonucci, F; Armano, M; Audley, H ...
Classical and quantum gravity,
06/2012, Letnik:
29, Številka:
12
Journal Article, Conference Proceeding
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
In this paper, we describe the current status of the LISA Pathfinder mission, a precursor mission aimed at demonstrating key technologies for future space-based gravitational wave detectors, like ...LISA. Since much of the flight hardware has already been constructed and tested, we will show that performance measurements and analysis of these flight components lead to an expected performance of the LISA Pathfinder which is a significant improvement over the mission requirements, and which actually reaches the LISA requirements over the entire LISA Pathfinder measurement band.
LISA Pathfinder satellite was launched on 3 December 2015 toward the Sun-Earth first Lagrangian point (L1) where the LISA Technology Package (LTP), which is the main science payload, will be tested. ...LTP achieves measurements of differential acceleration of free-falling test masses (TMs) with sensitivity below 3 × 10 − 14 m s − 2 Hz − 1 / 2 within the 1-30 mHz frequency band in one-dimension. The spacecraft itself is responsible for the dominant differential gravitational field acting on the two TMs. Such a force interaction could contribute a significant amount of noise and thus threaten the achievement of the targeted free-fall level. We prevented this by balancing the gravitational forces to the sub nm s−2 level, guided by a protocol based on measurements of the position and the mass of all parts that constitute the satellite, via finite element calculation tool estimates. In this paper, we will introduce the gravitational balance requirements and design, and then discuss our predictions for the balance that will be achieved in flight.
This paper presents a quantitative assessment of the performance of the upcoming LISA Pathfinder geodesic explorer mission. The findings are based on the results of extensive ground testing and ...simulation campaigns using flight hardware and flight control and operations algorithms. The results show that, for the central experiment of measuring the stray differential acceleration between the LISA test masses, LISA Pathfinder will be able to verify the overall acceleration noise to within a factor two of the LISA requirement at 1 mHz and within a factor 10 at 0.1 mHz. We also discuss the key elements of the physical model of disturbances, coming from LISA Pathfinder and ground measurement, that will guarantee the LISA performance.
LISA Pathfinder (LPF) is a science and technology demonstrator planned by the European Space Agency in view of the LISA mission. As a scientific payload, the LISA Technology Package on board LPF will ...be the most precise geodesics explorer flown as of today, both in terms of displacement and acceleration sensitivity. The challenges embodied by LPF make it a unique mission, paving the way towards the space-borne detection of gravitational waves with LISA. This paper summarizes the basics of LPF, and the progress made in preparing its effective implementation in flight. We hereby give an overview of the experiment philosophy and assumptions to carry on the measurement. We report on the mission plan and hardware design advances and on the progress on detailing measurements and operations. Some light will be shed on the related data processing algorithms. In particular, we show how to single out the acceleration noise from the spacecraft motion perturbations, how to account for dynamical deformation parameters distorting the measurement reference and how to decouple the actuation noise via parabolic free flight.
LISA Pathfinder: mission and status Antonucci, F; Armano, M; Audley, H ...
Classical and quantum gravity,
05/2011, Letnik:
28, Številka:
9
Journal Article, Conference Proceeding
Isotopic effects in the fragmentation of excited target residues following collisions of 12C on (112,124)Sn at incident energies of 300 and 600 MeV per nucleon were studied with the INDRA 4pi ...detector. The measured yield ratios for light particles and fragments with atomic number Z < or = 5 obey the exponential law of isotopic scaling. The deduced scaling parameters decrease strongly with increasing centrality to values smaller than 50% of those obtained for the peripheral event groups. Symmetry-term coefficients, deduced from these data within the statistical description of isotopic scaling, are near gamma = 25 MeV for peripheral and gamma < 15 MeV for central collisions.
We report the first results of the LISA Pathfinder in-flight experiment. The results demonstrate that two free-falling reference test masses, such as those needed for a space-based gravitational wave ...observatory like LISA, can be put in free fall with a relative acceleration noise with a square root of the power spectral density of 5.2 +/- 0.1 fm s(exp -2)/square root of Hz, or (0.54 +/- 0.01) x 10(exp -15) g/square root of Hz, with g the standard gravity, for frequencies between 0.7 and 20 mHz. This value is lower than the LISA Pathfinder requirement by more than a factor 5 and within a factor 1.25 of the requirement for the LISA mission, and is compatible with Brownian noise from viscous damping due to the residual gas surrounding the test masses. Above 60 mHz the acceleration noise is dominated by interferometer displacement readout noise at a level of (34.8 +/- 0.3) fm square root of Hz, about 2 orders of magnitude better than requirements. At f less than or equal to 0.5 mHz we observe a low-frequency tail that stays below 12 fm s(exp -2)/square root of Hz down to 0.1 mHz. This performance would allow for a space-based gravitational wave observatory with a sensitivity close to what was originally foreseen for LISA.
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