Jordan P Evans 2005 Class. Quantum Grav. 22 S177 doi:10.1088/0264-9381/22/10/007
Jordan P Evans
Show affiliationsThe 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.
Issue 10 (21 May 2005)
Received 1 November 2004, in final form 20 January 2005
Published 21 April 2005
Jordan P Evans 2005 Class. Quantum Grav. 22 S177
Paul W McNamara 2005 Class. Quantum Grav. 22 S243
C Grimani et al 2005 Class. Quantum Grav. 22 S327
G Singh et al 2009 Nanotechnology 20 095701
G Tiana et al 2007 Phys. Biol. 4 R1
A. Kilcik et al. 2009 ApJ 693 1173
Benjamin Aylott et al 2009 Class. Quantum Grav. 26 165008
Xin Zhao et al 2009 Nanotechnology 20 065605
Young Wook Chun et al 2009 Nanotechnology 20 085104
Zhongmin Yang et al 2005 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 38 1629