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In-flight testing of the injection of the LISA Pathfinder test mass into a geodesic

Mendes, L.; Russano, G.; Nofrarias, M. +77 more

LISA Pathfinder is a technology demonstrator space mission, aimed at testing key technologies for detecting gravitational waves in space. The mission is the precursor of LISA, the first space gravitational waves observatory, whose launch is scheduled for 2034. The LISA Pathfinder scientific payload includes two gravitational reference sensors (GRS…

Investigation of the in-flight anomalies of the LISA Pathfinder Test Mass release mechanism

Bortoluzzi, D.; Mendes, J.; Vignotto, D. +1 more

The LISA Pathfinder mission was flown to test some key technologies for the in-flight detection of gravitational waves. The mechanism developed to initialise the science phase, releasing the test mass into a geodesic trajectory, produced unexpected test mass states, requiring dedicated in-flight and on-ground test campaigns. Due to the limited inf…