(:title Roberta Giusteri:)

An overview on LISA Pathfinder mission

LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) Pathfinder is a dedicated technology demonstration mission for planned interferometric space-borne gravitational wave observatories, for example eLISA. The goal of the mission is to test the key technology components for eLISA by measuring the differential acceleration between two test masses inside a single co-orbiting spacecraft with unprecedented accuracy. In order to perform the experiment, it is necessary that one test mass is electrostatically served to the other. These forces represent a dominant noise source in differential acceleration. To suppress this effect, a ‘free-fall’ configuration has been realized: the actuation on one of the two test masses is limited to short impulses, so that it is in free fall between two successive kicks, while the other test mass is drag-free. In this talk I will briefly present this mission and the contribution of the University of Trento.

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