A Mars Odyssey

Professor Keith Mason, CEO of the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) said, “LISA is an ambitious mission which relies on technologies that have never been built before. By collaborating on demonstrator missions such as LISA Pathfinder these new technologies can be developed and tested in space - the only place where they can be truly verified.”

Moving a tremendous step closer to understanding some of the fascinating and exotic behavior of the Universe, such as the supermassive black holes, was moved forward when NASA and the European Space Agency signed a formal agreement for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (USA) Pathfinder, also called the LISA Pathfinder, for the latest technology demonstrator mission. A planned future mission, it is now a joint mission for further investigation of the detection of space “ripples,” which occurs when massive objects develop a strong acceleration. An example would be when the ripples are produced out of a black hole swallowing a massive neutron star, with such waves called “gravitational waves.” The LISA mission will be the first mission ever to detect them from space, or rather “attempt to.”

Planning on testing out Einstein’s Theory of General Relatively, LISA Pathfinder is planning on launching to the L1 Lagrange point between the Earth and Sun in 2010. There was a time when Albert Einstein predicted that ripples in space time can actually criss-cross the Universe, and with this detection by LISA, a new field of astronomy will begin in the future if it proves to be true. Onboard the LISA Pathfinder is the LISA Technology Package (LTP), to test the new technologies and Einstein’s theory. This is because in order for the LISA Pathfinder to work adequately, the scientists involved need to pretty much guarantee that “mass can float in space undisturbed.” Also, the scientists will need to control the spacecraft position so closely that it is only in error a few millionths of a millimetre. In other words, there cannot be too much room for error for the theory to be proven correctly.

According to the plans of the new agreement between NASA and ESA, signed by ESA’s Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain, and NASA’s Administrator Michael Griffin, at the Le Bourget Air Show in Paris, France, the European Space Agency will design, develop, launch, and operate the LISA pathfinder spacecraft. ESA’s online home also reports that NASA will “provide the Disturbance Reduction System Package (or DRS). The DRS, that will make use of the LTP sensors and metrology capability, is designed to test the drag-free attitude control as well.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Space Agency News, Technical Concerns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.