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MICROSCOPE Mission: First Results of a Space Test of the Equivalence Principle

Chhun, Ratana; Métris, Gilles; Rodrigues, Manuel +40 more

According to the weak equivalence principle, all bodies should fall at the same rate in a gravitational field. The MICROSCOPE satellite, launched in April 2016, aims to test its validity at the 10^-15 precision level, by measuring the force required to maintain two test masses (of titanium and platinum alloys) exactly in the same orbit. …