ravity can be studied in detail in near Earth orbits NEO's using laser-ranged test masses tracked with few-mm accuracy by ILRS. The two LAGEOS satellites have been used to measure frame dragging (a truly rotational effect predicted by GR) with a 10% error. A new mission and an optimized, second generation satellite, LARES (I. Ciufolini PI), is in preparation to reach an accuracy of 1% or less on frame dragging, to measure some PPN parameters, to test the 1/r(2) law in a very weak. field and, possibly, to test select models of unified theories (using the perigee). This requires a full thermal analysis of the test mass and an accurate knowledge of the asymmetric thermal thursts due to the radiation emitted by the Sun and Earth. A Space Climatic Facility (SCF) has been built at INFN-LNF (Frascati, Italy) to perform this experimental program on LAGEOS and LARES prototypes. It consists of a 2 m x 1 m cryostat, simulators of the Sun and Earth radiations and a versatile thermometry system made of discrete probes and an infrared digital camera. The SCF commissioning is well underway. A test of all its subsystems has been successfully completed on August 4, 2006, using a LAGEOS 3 x 3 retroreflector array built at LNF. This prototype has been thermally modeled in detail with a commercial simulation software. We expect to demonstrate the full functionality of the SCF with the thermal characterization of this LAGEOS array by the beginning of September 2006
Probing Gravity in Neo's with High-Accuracy Laser-Ranged Test Masses
CIUFOLINI, Ignazio;
2007-01-01
Abstract
ravity can be studied in detail in near Earth orbits NEO's using laser-ranged test masses tracked with few-mm accuracy by ILRS. The two LAGEOS satellites have been used to measure frame dragging (a truly rotational effect predicted by GR) with a 10% error. A new mission and an optimized, second generation satellite, LARES (I. Ciufolini PI), is in preparation to reach an accuracy of 1% or less on frame dragging, to measure some PPN parameters, to test the 1/r(2) law in a very weak. field and, possibly, to test select models of unified theories (using the perigee). This requires a full thermal analysis of the test mass and an accurate knowledge of the asymmetric thermal thursts due to the radiation emitted by the Sun and Earth. A Space Climatic Facility (SCF) has been built at INFN-LNF (Frascati, Italy) to perform this experimental program on LAGEOS and LARES prototypes. It consists of a 2 m x 1 m cryostat, simulators of the Sun and Earth radiations and a versatile thermometry system made of discrete probes and an infrared digital camera. The SCF commissioning is well underway. A test of all its subsystems has been successfully completed on August 4, 2006, using a LAGEOS 3 x 3 retroreflector array built at LNF. This prototype has been thermally modeled in detail with a commercial simulation software. We expect to demonstrate the full functionality of the SCF with the thermal characterization of this LAGEOS array by the beginning of September 2006I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
