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Plan for compensation of self-gravity on ST-7/DRS

Jordan P Evans

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The Space Technology 7 (ST-7) payload, flying on the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Pathfinder (LPF) mission, will demonstrate drag-free control of a test mass with acceleration disturbances below 3 × 10−14 m s−2 Hz−1/2 over a frequency range of 1 mHz to 30 mHz. Low-frequency acceleration noise introduced by the electrostatic force needed to counter static mass distribution imbalance is expected to be a significant contributor to the acceleration noise budget. For this reason, the self-gravity (due to mass imbalance) is minimized by adding trim mass to bring the total differential acceleration between the two test masses due to self-gravity below 5 × 10−10 m s−2 in any axis and the dc acceleration gradient due to self-gravity below 4 × 10−8 m s−2 m−1 in any axis of either test mass. A plan has been established to develop the distribution and placement of the compensation masses. Compensation for the self-gravity effects on the two test masses is handled in a two-step process. A nominal compensation mass is defined and incorporated early and is located very near the test masses. The final trimming for self-gravity occurs after the integration on the spacecraft with small mass added externally to the test-mass vacuum enclosures. The plan identifies three preliminary points in the hardware maturity where the trimming to the as-built configuration can take place: (1) during build-up of the sensor vacuum enclosure, (2) prior to delivery of the integrated ST-7 to Europe and (3) prior to environmental testing of the integrated LPF system. The sensitivity of the self-gravity to knowledge errors in the actual mass distribution is taken into account in the determination of final trimming opportunities and mounting locations.


PACS

04.80.Nn Gravitational wave detectors and experiments

95.55.Ym Gravitational radiation detectors; mass spectrometers; and other instrumentation and techniques

MSC

83C35 Gravitational waves

Subjects

Instrumentation and measurement

Gravitation and cosmology

Astrophysics and astroparticles

Dates

Issue 10 (21 May 2005)

Received 1 November 2004, in final form 20 January 2005

Published 21 April 2005



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