LISA mission overview

The LISA Pathfinder mission

In this paper, we describe the current status of the LISA Pathfinder mission, a precursor mission aimed at demonstrating key technologies for future spacebased 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...

Variations in the LISA mission

Before the design of LISA is frozen, it is important to consider whether changes in the design or in the mission operations would bring scientific benefits. I suggest here three possible changes: improving the shot-noiselimited sensitivity by either employing more light or larger mirrors; changing the arm-length during the mission; and inserting a fourth spacecraft into one of the arms to produ...

TIMED Mission Science Overview

he Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission is a low-cost NASA Sun-Earth Connections mission designed to provide a basic understanding of the least explored and least understood region of the Earth’s environment—the mesosphere, lower thermosphere, and ionosphere (MLTI). The MLTI region is located approximately 60 to 180 km above the surface and is a gateway b...

The LTP experiment on the LISA Pathfinder mission

We report on the development of the LISA Technology Package (LTP) experiment that will fly onboard the LISA Pathfinder mission of the European Space Agency in 2008. We first summarize the science rationale of the experiment aimed at showing the operational feasibility of the so-called transverse–traceless coordinate frame within the accuracy needed for LISA. 0264-9381/05/100125+14$30.00 © 2005 ...

Overview of Disturbance Reduction Requirements for LISA