LISA Pathfinder: First steps to observing gravitational waves from space

11th International LISA Symposium

Pathfinder, Lisa

关键词: Critical technologies;    European Space Agency;    Gravitational-wave detection;    Gravitational-wave observatory;    LISA Pathfinder;    Science community;    Science operations;    Short durations;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/840/1/012001/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/840/1/012001

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

LISA Pathfinder, the European Space Agency's technology demonstrator mission for future spaceborne gravitational wave observatories, was launched on 3 December 2015, from the European space port of Kourou, French Guiana. After a short duration transfer to the final science orbit, the mission has been gathering science data since. This data has allowed the science community to validate the critical technologies and measurement principle for low frequency gravitational wave detection and thereby confirming the readiness to start the next generation gravitational wave observatories, such as LISA. This paper will briefly describe the mission, followed by a description of the science operations highlighting the performance achieved. Details of the various experiments performed during the nominal science operations phase can be found in accompanying papers in this volume.