CrazyNeutrino said:
ESA’s LISA Pathfinder experiment launches to explore Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity
ESA’s LISA Pathfinder experiment has successfully launched atop a Vega rocket from the agency’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, and completed initial maneuvers required to place the probe in a low, stable orbit. The experiment will seek to observe tiny ripples in space known as gravitational waves, which were first predicted by Albert Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity.
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Good. I was keeping my fingers crossed for this one. “
LISA Pathfinder will pave the way for future missions by testing in flight the very concept of 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.
LISA Pathfinder will use the latest technology to minimise the extra forces on the test masses, and to take measurements. The inertial sensors, the laser metrology system, the drag-free control system and an ultra-precise micro-propulsion system make this a highly unusual mission.”
LISA Pathfinder is not expected to find gravity waves. It’s heading for L1, between the Earth and the Sun. “LISA Pathfinder’s science operations will last six months; split between 90 days for the LISA Technology Package (LTP), and 90 days for the Disturbance Reduction System (DRS). The DRS experiment will be using the European LTP sensor for its measurements. All of the data accumulated by the LTP, and a subset of the data analysis products, will be archived by the STOC and made available to the wider scientific community. The LTP team have proprietary data rights for the first three months, after which time the archive will be in the public domain.”