A new proposal for measuring the Lense–Thirring effect with a pair of supplementary satellites in the gravitational field of the Earth

In this letter we propose a new observable for measuring the general relativistic Lense–Thirring effect with artificial satellites in the gravitational field of the Earth. It consists of the difference of the perigee rates of two satellites placed in identical orbits with supplementary inclinations. As in the well known LAGEOS–LARES project in which, instead, the sum of the residuals of the nodal rates would be used, the proposed observable would be able to cancel out the aliasing effect of the classical even zonal perigee precessions induced by the oblateness of the Earth. The possibility of using the already existing LAGEOS II and a twin of its, to be launched, in a supplementary orbit is briefly examined. While with the originally proposed LAGEOS–LARES mission only the sum of the nodal rates could be used because the perigee of LAGEOS is not a good observable, the implementation of the proposed mission would allow to adopt both the sum of the nodes and the difference of the perigees.