Abstract
LISA Pathfinder (LPF), the second of the European Space Agency's Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology (SMART), is a dedicated technology validation mission for future spaceborne gravitational wave detectors, such as the proposed eLISA mission. LISA Pathfinder, and its scientific payload - the LISA Technology Package - will test, in flight, the critical technologies required for low frequency 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 is due to be launched in mid-2015, with first results on the performance of the system being available 6 months thereafter.The paper introduces the LISA Pathfinder mission, followed by an explanation of the physical principles of measurement concept and associated hardware. We then provide a detailed discussion of the LISA Technology Package, including both the inertial sensor and interferometric readout. As we approach the launch of the LISA Pathfinder, the focus of the development is shifting towards the science operations and data analysis - this is described in the final section of the paper
Highlights
LISA Pathfinder, the second of the European Space Agency’s Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology (SMART), is a technology validation mission for future low frequency, spaceborne, laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors
We provide a detailed discussion of the LISA Technology Package, including both the inertial sensor and interferometric readout
In order to measure the residual acceleration noise in the absence of this actuation noise which will not be present in eLISA, the LISA Pathfinder (LPF) team is working on a “free-fall” mode experiment, in which the second TM is left free for periods up to several hundred seconds, in free-falling arcs of nearly parabolic motion – in nearly uniform sub-nano-g field relative to the inertial reference of TM1 – terminated by brief impulsive forces in order to limit the TM displacement and to compensate the differential gravity imbalance on average
Summary
LISA Pathfinder, the second of the European Space Agency’s Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology (SMART), is a technology validation mission for future low frequency, spaceborne, laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors. This highlights the competition of the gravitational wave signal with the difference in the acceleration between the two particles – or test masses, TM – due to any stray forces, measured relative to their locally free-falling reference frames at the time of emission and detection,
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