Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2015
Volume 60, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 11–14, 2015; Baltimore, Maryland
Session S7: Focus Session: Space-based Gravitational Wave Detection I |
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Sponsoring Units: GGR Chair: Jeffrey Livas, NASA Room: Key 3 |
Monday, April 13, 2015 1:30PM - 2:06PM |
S7.00001: The LISA Pathfinder Mission Invited Speaker: Paul McNamara LISA Pathfinder is the second of the European Space Agency's Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology (SMART). The goal of LISA Pathfinder (LPF) is to demonstrate the technologies required for future laser interferometric spaceborne gravitational wave detectors. The development of the LPF hardware is now over, and final integration and testing of the spacecraft and payload is underway. The delivery of the opto-mechanical heart of the payload is scheduled for Q2 2015, following which the final system tests will be performed. Launch is scheduled for September 2015. First results will be available approximately 3 months after launch. In this presentation I will describe the LISA Pathfinder mission, and provide the current status of the mission and remaining activities to launch and operations. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 13, 2015 2:06PM - 2:18PM |
S7.00002: LISA technology development using the UF precision torsion pendulum Stephen Apple, Andrew Chilton, Taiwo Olatunde, Giacomo Ciani, Guido Mueller, John Conklin LISA will directly observe low-frequency gravitational waves emitted by sources ranging from super-massive black hole mergers to compact galactic binaries. A laser interferometer will measure picometer changes in the distances between free falling test masses separated by millions of kilometers. A test mass and its associated sensing, actuation, charge control and caging subsystems are referred to as a gravitational reference sensor (GRS). The demanding acceleration noise requirement for the LISA GRS has motivated a rigorous testing campaign in Europe and a dedicated technology mission, LISA Pathfinder, scheduled for launch in the fall of 2015. At the University of Florida we are developing a nearly thermally noise limited torsion pendulum for testing GRS technology enhancements that may improve the performance and/or reduce the cost of the LISA GRS. This experimental facility is based on the design of a similar facility at the University of Trento, and consists of a vacuum enclosed torsion pendulum that suspends mock-ups of the LISA test masses, surrounded by electrode housings. Some of the technologies that will be demonstrated by this facility include a novel TM charge control scheme based on ultraviolet LEDs, an all-optical TM position and attitude sensor, and drift mode operation. This presentation will describe the design of the torsion pendulum facility, its current acceleration noise performance, and the status of the GRS technologies under development. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 13, 2015 2:18PM - 2:30PM |
S7.00003: Telescope design considerations and prototyping for a space-based gravitational wave observatory Shannon Sankar, Jeffrey Livas Space-based mission designs for observation and study of gravitational waves in the 0.1 mHz to 1 Hz band continue to evolve. Nevertheless, all current designs require the propagation of a laser beam over immense distances between science crafts. To achieve this optical link, catoptric telescopes are utilized in full-duplex configuration - simultaneously sending and receiving laser light via the same optical elements. Many of the telescope subsystem design criteria are closely tied to observatory-level requirements, due to the fact that the telescopes are in the measurement beam path. We review these design requirements and the possible design implementations. Furthermore, we discuss our efforts to validate a particular design through modeling and prototyping. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 13, 2015 2:30PM - 2:42PM |
S7.00004: A demonstration of arm-locking for LISA using the GRACE-FO Laser Ranging Instrument Ira Thorpe, Kirk McKenzie, Andrew Sutton The mitigation of laser frequency noise is a key challenge for the design of space-based interferometric gravitational wave detectors such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and its derivatives. Arm locking is novel technique of stabilizing the laser frequency using the LISA arms that has been studied through simulations and in the laboratory. The Laser Ranging Instrument (LRI) on the upcoming GRACE-FO geodesy mission provides an opportunity to perform an on-orbit demonstration of arm-locking in a configuration that is representative of LISA in many aspects. In this talk, I will describe a potential arm-locking experiment for GRACE-FO and present preliminary results from time-domain simulations being used to refine the proposed experiment design. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 13, 2015 2:42PM - 2:54PM |
S7.00005: ABSTRACT WITHDRAWN |
Monday, April 13, 2015 2:54PM - 3:06PM |
S7.00006: Characterization of the LISA Pathfinder Drag Reduction System Jacob Slutsky The LISA Pathfinder mission will be launched this year by ESA, and so it is urgent to simulate and characterize key experiments to optimize and validate the Gravitational Reference Sensor (GRS) performance. Success of this technology directly applies to any future LISA-like mission. Pathfinder is comprised of both European and NASA payloads, the LISA Technology Package (LTP) and Space Technology 7 (ST-7), respectively. ST-7 includes a Colloid Micro-Newton Thruster (CMNT) system, to maneuver the spacecraft with low noise, and a control system for spacecraft and test mass actuation. European partners have developed the LTP Data Analysis (LTPDA) Matlab suite, including state-space simulations of the full mission to create mock data, analysis pipelines constructed to reduce this and eventual actual data. We have adapted this infrastructure to reflect CMNT physics and control design where they differ from LTP. We analyze the residual GRS acceleration noise, paying particular attention to ST-7 specific CMNT noise characterization experiments and the performance differentials between using the inertial and interferometric sensing systems of Pathfinder in and out of loop. I will discuss our current results analyzing simulated ST-7 experimental runs and our future plans. [Preview Abstract] |
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