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ЦитироватьVega's Zefiro 23 and Zefiro 9 stages have been transported to French Guiana for a November flight with LISA Pathfinder
 
July 29, 2015 – Vega Flight VV06
Elements have arrived in French Guiana for the next Vega launcher, which is scheduled for a November mission from the Spaceport to deploy Europe's LISA Pathfinder – a pioneering scientific spacecraft that will set the stage for observing the Universe in a completely new way.  
The Zefiro 23 and Zefiro 9 stages for Arianespace's lightweight launcher were delivered to French Guiana this month aboard the MN Toucan, one of two ships regularly utilized for transporting Arianespace launcher components from Europe to the company's South American operations base.  They were part of the MN Toucan's cargo that also included components for an Ariane 5 to be used on a September mission with two telecommunications satellites.
Zefiro 23 and Zefiro 9 are the solid propellant second and third stages, respectively, for the four-stage Vega launcher, which is produced by industrial prime contractor ELV – a jointly owned company of Avio and the Italian Space Agency.

 

LISA Pathfinder: the first detection of gravitational waves in space

Most existing knowledge about the Universe is based upon the observation of electromagnetic waves – such as visible light, infrared, ultraviolet, radio, X-rays and gamma rays.  The European Space Agency's LISA Pathfinder will pave the way for astrophysicists to address some of the most fundamental questions about the Universe and possibly address new ones through a new observation method.
For the first time, LISA Pathfinder will help test and validate the technology in space needed for detecting low-frequency gravitational waves, which are ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.
While operating in a 500,000 km.-by-800,000 km. halo orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point  (located 1.5 million km. from Earth), the spacecraft will put two test masses in a near-perfect gravitational free-fall controlled by electrostatic fields. LISA Pathfinder's inertial sensors, a laser metrology system, a drag-free control system and an ultra-precise micro-propulsion system will be used to control and measure the masses' motion with unprecedented accuracy.
Scientists predict that gravitational waves should still be "echoing" from the Universe's formation, and the detection of these waves by LISA Pathfinder would be the most fundamental discovery of its mission.  The Airbus Defence and Space-built spacecraft also will measure gravitational waves generated by objects such as collapsing binary star systems and massive black holes.
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At the Port of Pariacabo in French Guiana, the Zefiro 23 and Zefiro 9 solid propellant stages for Arianespace's lightweight Vega vehicle are unloaded from the MN Toucan sea-going vessel for their transfer by road to the Spaceport.

 

Sustaining the pace of Arianespace's operations in 2015

The mission to loft LISA Pathfinder is designated Flight VV06 in Arianespace's launcher family numbering system, and will be the sixth Vega launch from the Spaceport since its introduction, as well as the lightweight vehicle's third this year. It follows June's Flight VV05 to deploy Sentinel-2A and the February suborbital mission with the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) spaceplane on Flight VV04.
Activity for Vega's late November mission is part of ongoing launcher and payload preparations to support four upcoming Arianespace launch campaigns in French Guiana, along with: Ariane 5 Flight VA225 on August 20; September 10's Soyuz Flight VS12; and a September mission with Ariane 5, which is designated Flight VA226.
To date, Arianespace has performed six launches in 2015 from French Guiana, comprising three flights with the heavy-lift Ariane 5, two Vega missions and one medium-lift Soyuz launch. 

Цитироватьazeast пишет:
LISA Pathfinder отправится в космос в середине или в конце сентября текущего года

ЦитироватьThe AVUM upper stage arrives in French Guiana for Arianespace's November Vega launch with LISA Pathfinder  
 
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The AVUM for Arianespace's Vega mission with Europe's LISA Pathfinder scientific spacecraft is unloaded from the MN Toucan roll-on/roll-off sea-going cargo ship after docking at the Port of Pariacabo in French Guiana.
 
  September 24, 2015 – Vega Flight VV06
The liquid upper stage for a November flight utilizing Arianespace's lightweight Vega vehicle has been delivered to French Guiana, supporting the company's sustained mission pace in 2015 with its complete launcher family at the Spaceport.
This upper stage – known as the Attitude and Vernier Upper Module (AVUM) – arrived aboard the MN Toucan, a roll-on/roll-off sea-going cargo ship utilized by Arianespace for transporting launcher components from Europe to South America.
The AVUM will help place Europe's LISA Pathfinder scientific spacecraft on its way to a 500,000 km.-by-800,000 km. halo orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point (located 1.5 million km. from Earth).  Developed by Italy's Avio, the AVUM is the only liquid propellant system on the four-stage lightweight launcher, and is stacked atop Vega's solid propellant first, second and third stages.
LISA Pathfinder's goal is to help test and validate the technology in space needed for detecting low-frequency gravitational waves, which are ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. Test masses carried by the spacecraft will be put in a near-perfect gravitational free-fall, controlled by electrostatic fields. LISA Pathfinder's onboard sensors and systems will control and measure the masses' motion with unprecedented accuracy.
 Vega is the smallest vehicle in Arianespace's launcher family, which is in operation from French Guiana along with the medium-lift Soyuz and heavy-lift Ariane 5.  Production of Vega is the responsibility of industrial prime contractor ELV – a company jointly owned by Avio and the Italian Space Agency.

Цитировать

A busy November, with Ariane 5 and Vega missions scheduled

Flight VA227 is scheduled for a November liftoff, and will be the 227th launch of an Ariane since the European launcher series entered operation in 1979.
In another area of the Spaceport, the assembly of a light-lift Vega has begun for the sixth launch of this smallest vehicle in Arianespace's launcher family, targeted to send Europe's LISA Pathfinder on its way for a pioneering space science mission.
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In this upward-looking view at the Spaceport's ZLV facility, Vega's P80 first stage is shown on the launch pad.

The build-up process began when Vega's P80 solid propellant first stage was moved to the Spaceport's ZLV facility and positioned on the launch pad. This will be followed by the stacking of the launcher's solid propellant second and third stages, as well as integration of the Attitude and Vernier Upper Module (AVUM) liquid bipropellant upper stage – and then "topped off" with its payload: LISA Pathfinder.

 

Arianespace on track for a record 12 launches in 2015

Vega has been previously been launched five times from French Guiana since its introduction at the Spaceport in 2012, deploying a full range of satellite payloads. For the November mission, identified as Flight VV06, the launcher will place LISA Pathfinder in a slightly elliptical parking orbit. The spacecraft subsequently will use its own propulsion module to reach the final operational orbit: a 500,000-km.-by-800,000-km. halo orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point, 1.5 million km. from Earth.
 Vega and Ariane 5 are two of the three members in Arianespace's launcher family, which are joined at the Spaceport by the medium-lift Soyuz. Utilizing this complete inventory, the company is targeting a total of 12 missions during 2015.

ЦитироватьESA Science ‏@esascience  (https://twitter.com/esascience) 10m ago (https://twitter.com/esascience/status/652071765104021505)

Great news! MT @ESA_LPF (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF): #LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash) has landed in Kourou!

ЦитироватьThis image illustrates LISA Pathfinder's journey from launch to its final destination, around the L1 Sun-Earth Lagrangian point some 1.5 million km away from Earth towards the Sun

Insert: LISA Pathfinder will launch in late 2015 on board a Vega rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. Vega, which is specially designed to take small payloads into low Earth orbit, will place LISA Pathfinder onto an elliptical orbit, with a perigee (closest approach) of 200 km, apogee (furthest approach) of 1540 km, and inclination of about 6.5 degrees. Then, when the final stage of the Vega rocket is jettisoned, LISA Pathfinder will continue under its own power, beginning a series of six apogee-raising manoeuvres powered by its own propulsion system. These manoeuvres will be completed two weeks after launch.

After this, LISA Pathfinder will cruise towards its final orbiting location. A month after its final burn, it will jettison its propulsion module and continue its journey before settling into an orbit around the L1 Sun-Earth Lagrangian point. The entire journey, from launch to arrival at the operational orbit around L1, will take approximately eight weeks.

ЦитироватьLISA Pathfinder takes a major step closer to launch with its arrival at the Spaceport in French Guiana
 
  October 8, 2015 – Vega Flight VV06
The LISA Pathfinder deep-space science payload for Arianespace's next mission with its Vega launcher has been delivered to South America for an early December liftoff fr om the Spaceport.

LISA Pathfinder was shipped from Airbus Defence and Space's Stevenage, U.K. facility for delivery to French Guiana, wh ere it touched down at Cayenne's Félix Eboué Airport this morning aboard a chartered Antonov An-124 cargo jetliner.
After being lofted on December 2 by Vega, LISA Pathfinder initially will be placed in a slightly elliptical parking orbit. The spacecraft subsequently will use its own propulsion module to reach the final operational orbit: a 500,000-km.-by-800,000-km. halo orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point, 1.5 million km. from Earth.
LISA Pathfinder will help test and validate the technology in space needed for detecting low-frequency gravitational waves – which are ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. The spacecraft also will measure gravitational waves generated by objects such as collapsing binary star systems and massive black holes.
Developed in a European Space Agency program, LISA Pathfinder was produced under the management of prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage.  Its liftoff mass will be an estimated 1,900 kg.
Vega is the smallest member of Arianespace's launcher family, which also includes the medium-lift Soyuz and heavyweight Ariane 5.  The light-lift Vega is produced under the responsibility of industrial prime contractor ELV, a company jointly owned by Avio and the Italian Space Agency.
 The December 2 mission with LISA Pathfinder will be Vega's sixth since the launch vehicle's maiden flight from the Spaceport in 2012.

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The protective shipping container with LISA Pathfinder is unloaded from an An-124 cargo jetliner at Cayenne's Félix Eboué Airport following the aircraft's landing this morning.

ЦитироватьLaunch campaign begins for Europe's trailblazing gravity probe       
Posted on October 12, 2015 by Stephen Clark (http://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)    
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ESA's LISA Pathfinder spacecraft is seen inside IABG's test center near Munich on Aug. 31. Credit: ESA–P. Sebirot, 2015
 
A compact European space probe, already fitted with a propulsive boost stage to send it a million miles from Earth, has arrived at its French Guiana launch base for liftoff in early December aboard a solid-fueled Vega rocket.
The craft's mission is experimental, aimed at proving out the technical apparatus required to detect gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.
Known as LISA Pathfinder, the mission has cost the European Space Agency about 430 million euros ($490 million), but it is just the first step in a long-term program to study the "invisible universe" by observing unseen gravity waves created from the motion of massive objects like black holes.
"This is an extremely challenging mission that will pave the way for future space-based projects to observe gravitational waves, opening a new window to explore the cosmos," said Paul McNamara, ESA's LISA Pathfinder project scientist.
Lasers buried inside the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft will measure the motion of two gold-platinum alloy cubes 46 millimeters (1.8 inches) on a side. Free-floating inside vacuum enclosures, the motion of the cubes will be measured to one thousandth of one millionth of a millimeter.
Micro-thrusters mounted outside the probe, coupled with specialized control software, will carefully regulate the movement of the spacecraft to keep the gold-platinum test masses floating inside their housings. The goal of the spacecraft is to keep the test cubes floating in an electrostatic field free from outside influence, demonstrating the masses can remain in near-perfect free-fall.
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Artist's concept of LISA Pathfinder and its expendable propulsion module after launch. Credit: Airbus Defense and Space
 
Such an achievement is vital to an ambitious multi-spacecraft gravity wave observatory planned for launch by ESA in the 2030s. Instead of having two free-floating 38 centimeters (15 inches) apart, the future mission will attempt to measure the exact distances between test masses up to millions of kilometers apart.
"Gravitational waves are an entirely fresh and different way to study the universe, providing an important complement to the well-established approach of astronomy, based on observing the light emitted by celestial bodies," McNamara said in a statement.
The spacecraft flew inside an Antonov An-124 cargo plane from London Stansted Airport, near LISA Pathfinder's factory at Airbus Defense and Space, the mission's prime industrial contractor, to the European-run spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on Oct. 8.
After landing at the airport in French Guiana's capital city, Cayenne, the spacecraft was trucked to the Guiana Space Center to begin final preflight processing.
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The Antonov An-124 transport aircraft carrying LISA Pathfinder is seen at Cayenne's Félix Eboué Airport. Credit: ESA
 
The spacecraft came from Europe to South America in launch configuration, according to Cesar Garcia Marirrodriga, ESA's project manager.
Final checks on the probe will be completed in the coming weeks, followed by fueling of the craft's purpose-built propulsion module. Technicians will also install the flight clamp band connecting LISA Pathfinder's propulsion and science modules, Marirrodriga told Spaceflight Now via email.
Then the 1,910-kilogram (4,210-pound) spacecraft will be hoisted atop the four-stage Vega booster inside its payload shroud in November.
Liftoff is set for Dec. 2 at 0415 GMT (11:15 p.m. EST on Dec. 1) aboard the sixth flight of Europe's new lightweight Vega launcher.
Assembly of the Vega booster began in late September with the mounting of the rocket's first stage P80 solid rocket motor at its launch pad in French Guiana.
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The first stage P80 motor for the Vega rocket is moved to the launch pad for the LISA Pathfinder mission. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – P. Baudon
 
The Vega's fourth stage kick engine will put LISA Pathfinder into an an elliptical orbit around Earth, then the craft's on-board propulsion module will fire six times to boost its altitude higher over a two-week orbit-raising phase. The probe will eventually pick up the speed necessary escape orbit and fly to the L1 Lagrange point, a gravitationally stable spot about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) on the sun's side of the Earth.
The spacecraft will jettison its disposable propulsion module after it is on course for its operating post at L1.
LISA Pathfinder will enter a looping orbit around the L1 Lagrange point around the beginning of February, followed by a six-month prime operational mission phase.
"The extreme precision of measurements and control required in this domain pose a great technical challenge," Marirrodriga said in a statement. "In fact, everything was a challenge in this brand-new class of missions: from the innovative instrumentation, to the new modelling of self-gravitation within the spacecraft, and the very complex integration tests of the spacecraft.
"The industrial and scientific teams that undertook these daunting tasks have done an extraordinary job, and now the mission is ready for launch," he said.

ЦитироватьLISA Pathfinder is prepared for Arianespace's Vega launch in December on a pioneering space science mission

October 15, 2015 – Vega Flight VV06
The LISA Pathfinder demonstrator for space-based observations of gravitational waves is undergoing checkout at the Spaceport, preparing it for a December 2 launch on Arianespace's sixth flight of the Vega light-lift launcher from French Guiana.
This activity is being performed in the S5C hall of the Spaceport's S5 payload processing facility, with the work being led by teams from LISA Pathfinder prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space.
LISA Pathfinder is a mission organized by the European Space Agency (ESA). The probe is designed to test critical concepts and technologies related to the detection of gravitational waves – the ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

 

LISA Pathfinder will be placed by Vega in an elliptical Earth orbit

After being lofted by Vega on Arianespace Flight VV06, the spacecraft will enter an elliptical Earth orbit, then use its own propulsion module to reach the operational orbit for six months of scientific and technical operations around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1), located approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
LISA Pathfinder is unusual in design. Conceived to be the "quietest" spacecraft ever launched, it does not possess a typical payload structure – since the spacecraft as a whole is part of the experiment. At its core are two individual freely-falling test masses: cubes of gold-platinum alloy whose distance apart will be monitored by a complex laser system.
The satellite's technology package was developed by European companies, research institutes and ESA; while a disturbance reduction system was provided by the U.S. NASA space agency.

 

Vega's integration continues for Flight VV06

LISA Pathfinder will have an estimated liftoff mass of 1,910 kg. and will be lofted from French Guiana atop the four-stage Vega – which currently is being integrated at the Spaceport's ZLV launch facility. 
In the latest step of its build-up, Vega's Zefiro 23 solid propellant second stage was mated this week to the P80 first stage – which is positioned on the launch pad inside a protective mobile gantry.
Vega began operation in 2012 and is designed to carry the growing number of small scientific spacecraft and other lighter-weight payloads under development worldwide.  As the smallest member of Arianespace's launcher family – which also includes the medium-lift Soyuz and heavyweight Ariane 5 – Vega is produced under the responsibility of industrial prime contractor ELV, a company jointly owned by Avio and the Italian Space Agency.

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LISA Pathfinder is installed on a work dolly (photo at left) that provides access to the spacecraft and its propulsion module during pre-launch checkout in the Spaceport's S5 payload processing facility.

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In the Spaceport's ZLV launch zone, Vega's Zefiro 23 solid propellant second stage is ready for integration atop the launcher, which is partly visible inside the protective mobile gantry.
 

ЦитироватьLISA Pathfinder's name, Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, clearly indicates the role of precursor that this mission plays. Its goal is to validate the technology required to detect gravitational waves from space. Gravitational waves will open a new door in our understanding of the Universe, and at the same time help to verify Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

ЦитироватьThe journey and final orbit of LISA Pathfinder, ESA's technology demonstration mission that will pave the way for future gravitational-wave observatories in space.

LISA Pathfinder is scheduled for launch on 2 December 2015 on a Vega rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. Vega will place the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit, with a perigee (closest approach to Earth) of 200 km, apogee (furthest point) of 1540 km, with the path angled at 6.5º to the equator. Then, once Vega's final stage is jettisoned, LISA Pathfinder will continue under its own power, beginning a series of six apogee-raising manoeuvres over the next two weeks.

The last burn will set LISA Pathfinder on its way towards its final orbiting location. The cruise will last about six weeks, and the propulsion module will be discarded along the way four weeks in. Eventually, the spacecraft will circle the L1 Sun–Earth Lagrangian point. There, LISA Pathfinder will begin its six months of demonstrating key technologies for space-based observation of gravitational waves.

ЦитироватьInitial launcher assembly is completed for Arianespace's Vega mission with LISA Pathfinder

October 26, 2015 – Vega Flight VV06
The sixth Vega to be launched from French Guiana has completed its basic assembly at the Spaceport, readying this light-lift vehicle to receive Europe's LISA Pathfinder scientific spacecraft for an Arianespace mission in December.
Vega's build-up was performed on the Spaceport's ZLV launch pad, with the vehicle protected by a mobile gantry. The initial assembly was accomplished when Vega's AVUM (Attitude and Vernier Upper Module) upper stage was integrated atop the launcher's three lower solid-propellant stages. The AVUM uses liquid bi-propellant for primary maneuvering, along with cold gas for attitude control.
With this assembly activity achieved, Vega is now ready to receive its LISA Pathfinder payload for the December 2 launch, which is designated Flight VV06 in Arianespace's launcher family numbering system. The probe was developed in a European Space Agency (ESA) program and is designed to test critical concepts and technologies related to the detection of gravitational waves – the ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.

 

Vega to place LISA Pathfinder on its way to the L1 Lagrange point

Built under the responsibility of prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space, LISA Pathfinder is to be placed by Vega in an initial elliptical Earth orbit. The spacecraft's own propulsion module will be used to reach the operational orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1) – located approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
The Vega launch vehicle entered service in February 2012, and its five missions conducted to date from French Guiana have orbited a full range of payloads – from Earth imaging satellites and climate change observation platforms to technology demonstrators and an experimental spaceplane.
 Vega is tailored to accommodate scientific, institutional, governmental and commercial satellites, joining Arianespace's medium-lift Soyuz and heavy-lift Ariane 5 launchers in side-by-side operations from the Spaceport.  The development of Vega was performed in a multinationally-financed European Space Agency program, with launcher's design authority and prime contractor role performed by Italy's ELV company – a joint venture of Avio and the Italian Space Agency.
 
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Vega's AVUM upper stage is shown during its integration at the Spaceport. The module is hoisted to the upper levels of Vega's protective mobile gantry,

(http://www.arianespace.com/images/missionup-dates/2015/1358-3.jpg)
then moved into position for installation atop the launcher's three solid propellant stages.

ЦитироватьLISA Pathfinder is "topped off" for its Arianespace Vega launch to test the General Theory of Relativity
 
  November 10, 2015 – Vega Flight VV06
The LISA Pathfinder scientific space probe to be launched by Arianespace's next Vega flight has received its propellant load for a mission to study the ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
LISA Pathfinder was "topped off" in the Spaceport's S5 payload preparation facility, taking it one step closer to a December 2 launch from French Guiana on Arianespace Flight VV06 – the light-lift Vega's sixth launch since entering service in 2012.
The European Space Agency space probe was built under the responsibility of prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space, and will be placed by Vega in an initial elliptical Earth orbit. The spacecraft's own propulsion module will be utilized to reach the operational orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1) – located approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
To evaluate the concept of low-frequency gravitational wave detection, LISA Pathfinder will put two test masses in a near-perfect gravitational free fall, controlling and measuring their motion with unprecedented accuracy.  The test masses will be suspended inside their own vacuum containers, with LISA Pathfinder designed as the quietest spacecraft ever launched – allowing for extremely small distance measurements with the masses to be performed by an onboard interferometer.
Vega is the smallest member of Arianespace's launcher family, tailored to accommodate scientific, institutional, governmental and commercial satellites. It operates along with the medium-lift Soyuz and heavy-lift Ariane 5 at the Spaceport. 
The development of Vega was carried out in a multinationally-financed European Space Agency program, with the launcher's design authority and prime contractor role performed by Italy's ELV company – a joint venture of Avio and the Italian Space Agency.

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LISA Pathfinder is filled with its propellant load in preparation for the spacecraft's launch on Arianespace Flight VV06.

ЦитироватьESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF) 1h ago (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF/status/666628745697091584)

L-14 days: LPF has been integrated to the VEGA Payload Adaptor, and the fairing has now been closed.

Цитировать18 November 2015 11:24
 With only fourteen days to go until the launch of LISA Pathfinder on 2 December, preparations continue according to plan, and this week has seen another two major milestones passed: fitting the launch vehicle adapter to the spacecraft, and enclosing the spacecraft in the fairing.
 
    Since arriving at the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 8 October, the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft has been tested and prepared to ensure that it is ready to be launched.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/135260.jpg) (http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=56780)
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LISA Pathfinder being prepared for fuelling.
Credit: ESA-CNES-Arianespace / Optique Vidéo du CSG - P. Baudon

    Following the completion last week of fueling of the propellant tanks, this week saw the launch composite module (LCM) - the combined spacecraft and propulsion modules - undergoing the final preparations for the launch. This started with the LCM being removed from its integration jig, and being fitted to the Payload Adaptor of the Vega rocket. The next time the LCM separates from this adaptor LISA Pathfinder will be about 200km above the Earth's surface, having just completed its first orbit of the Earth.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/135263.jpg) (http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=56863)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/135264.jpg) (http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=56864)
LISA Pathfinder being integrated to the Vega launcher's Payload Adaptor.
Credit: ESA-CNES-Arianespace / Optique Vidéo du CSG - G. Barbaste

    When the LCM was secured on the payload adaptor, all the non-flight items - the so called Red Tag Items - that were still on the satellite had to be removed. These are coloured red so that they are easier to spot on the spacecraft, reducing the chance that we miss one! Examples of Red Tag Items are: the covers that protect the thruster nozzles, and the safety pins that prevent unwanted firing of the pyrotechnic release mechanisms.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/135262.jpg) (http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=56857)
Examples of red tag items covering the micro-newton thrusters' nozzles.
Credit: ESA

    With the launch composite in its flight configuration, the next step was to enclose it in the rocket's payload shroud, also known as the fairing. The fairing protects the satellite as it accelerates up through the atmosphere of the Earth. If you have seen the Hollywood movie, The Martian, you'll know that the fairing is crucial in protecting the inside of the payload bay, and ensuring the rocket reaches its intended orbit... especially travelling at high velocity through Earth's thick atmosphere.
    However, when LISA Pathfinder has passed through the atmosphere, the fairing becomes a hindrance, as it means carrying more mass than necessary into orbit. So, only 3 minutes 54 seconds after launch, the two 'clam shells' of the fairing separate and are jettisoned from the launcher. The two halves then burn up as they hurtle through the atmosphere on their final journey back towards Earth.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/135259.jpg) (http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=56856)
The two halves of the LISA Pathfinder fairing. 
Credit: ESA-CNES-Arianespace / Optique Vidéo du CSG - P. baudon

    Back to this week: with LISA Pathfinder now enclosed in the fairing and hidden from our view, the team had one final activity before we wave our baby off on its journey to the launch pad: the signing of the fairing sticker. The whole team present at the launch site had the opportunity to sign our names on the side of the fairing, wishing LISA Pathfinder Godspeed on her voyage to space.

    Paul McNamara
    17 November 2015
    Kourou, French Guiana

ЦитироватьESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF)  18 нояб. (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF/status/666965070165987328)  
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The next time she sees the light will be on orbit!
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//#[B]LISAPathfinder[/B] being encapsulated for 2 Dec launch http://esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2015/11/Encapsulation_begins3... Update: http://sci.esa.int/lisa-pathfinder/56854-launch-campaign-journal-hidden-from-view/...

ESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF)  18 нояб. (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF/status/667035443100311552)  
How LPF was moved from the CSG S5 cleanroom onto its transporter  
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  (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/185742.jpg) ESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF)  18 нояб. (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF/status/667028150682034176)  
And we're off to the launch pad.....
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[/li][/LIST]ESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF)  18 нояб. (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF/status/667058073442385921)  
LPF is now at the launch pad. Next step is to lift it to the upper level in preparation for integration to the rocket tomorrow

ЦитироватьESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF)  24 ч.24 часа назад (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF/status/667302929888493569)  
And we're there....LPF is now on the upper level of the launch platform. Later today we will have a complete rocket.  
 (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/158928.jpg)  
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  (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/185742.jpg) ESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF)  18 ч.18 часов назад (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF/status/667398509759471616)  
With the integration of the "egg" onto the top of the rocket, VV06 - LPF's ride to space - is now complete.
 (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/158932.jpg)

ЦитироватьVega booster crowned with gravitational probe pathfinder       
Posted on November 20, 2015 by Stephen Clark (http://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/154781.jpg) (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/154781.jpg)
LISA Pathfinder and its orbit-raising propulsion module were enclosed inside the Vega rocket's payload fairing Nov. 16. Credit: ESA-Manuel Pedoussaut, 2015
 
After criss-crossing Europe for a decade, the LISA Pathfinder satellite testbed has reached its last stop before launch in early December on a mission to demonstrate the delicate technologies required to detect elusive low-frequency gravitational waves rippling through the cosmos.
Ground crews transferred the spacecraft — already enclosed inside the Vega rocket's nose cone — from a preparation facility at Europe's spaceport in French Guiana to the Vega's launch pad Wednesday. A crane lifted the package on top of the four-stage rocket Thursday, topping off the 98-foot-tall (30-meter) booster.

Спойлер

The European Space Agency mission is set for launch Dec. 2 at 0415 GMT (11:15 p.m. EST on Dec. 1) on the sixth flight of the Italian-led Vega rocket. The mission has a one-second launch window, or else wait until another day.
Made by a contractor team led by Airbus Defense and Space's UK division, the hexagonal space probe is heading for a looping halo-like orbit around the L1 Lagrange point nearly a million miles, or 1.5 million kilometers, from Earth toward the sun. The tug of gravity from Earth and the sun roughly balance at the L1 point, making it a popular home for solar research missions.
But LISA Pathfinder will not look at the sun.
Mission planners chose L1 for LISA Pathfinder's operating post because it offers a gravity-neutral location to avoid spoiling the probe's finely-tuned internal sensors, which must maintain extremely precise movements to cancel out any extraneous gravitational field.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/154830.jpg) (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/154830.jpg)
Technicians hoist the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft inside its payload fairing atop the Vega rocket's AVUM fourth stage early Thursday. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – P. Baudon
 
The spacecraft will release two gold-platinum alloy cubes — each 1.8 inches (46 millimeters) on a side — from launch locks inside internal chambers once it is on track for the L1 Lagrange point. Free-floating 15 inches (38 centimeters) apart inside separate vacuum enclosures, the motion of the test cubes will be tracked to one thousandth of one millionth of a millimeter using a laser ranging system measuring the distance between them.
Cold gas micro-thrusters mounted outside the probe, coupled with specialized control software, will carefully regulate the movement of the spacecraft to keep the gold-platinum test masses floating inside their housings. The goal of the spacecraft is to keep the test cubes floating in an electrostatic field free from outside influence, demonstrating the masses can remain in near-perfect free-fall.
NASA supplied a separate set of colloidal thrusters, which generate thrust by accelerating liquid fuel through an electric field, to take over control of LISA Pathfinder for part of its 180-day prime science mission. The U.S. space agency also developed separate software algorithms to be tested on the mission independently of the European control systems.
The crux of LISA Pathfinder's mission is testing out the thrusters, software, lasers and electronics required to fly a such a spacecraft perfectly undisturbed.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/154791.jpg) (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/154791.jpg)
Artist's illustration of the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft after separation from its propulsion module. Credit: ESA
 
LISA Pathfinder is designed to essentially fly itself around the free-floating test masses embedded inside it, according to Cesar Garcia Marirrodriga, ESA's project manager for the mission.
Such technologies are vital to a future satellite project to deploy a fully-fledged gravitational wave observatory. With up to three spacecraft stationed up to millions of miles apart, the multi-spacecraft observatory set for launch in the 2030s will be capable of picking up signals of gravitational waves by monitoring slight, but measurable, changes in the distances between the test masses inside the three spacecraft.
Astronomers say gravitational waves coming from immense objects in the distant universe, such as merging black holes and galactic nuclei, can yield new insights into the fundamental physics of the universe in ways impossible to study with traditional observations of light waves .
LISA Pathfinder is purely experimental. Its modest size — about 6.9 feet (2.1 meters) in diameter — is too small to detect the low-frequency gravitational waves themselves.
ESA authorized full development of LISA Pathfinder in 2004, with a launch then expected in 2008.
But hurdles stood in the way, forcing European designers to switch from a futuristic design of electric micro-thrusters to stabilize the spacecraft in orbit to less precise nitrogen cold gas thrusters. Engineers also struggled with the mechanism that will shield LISA Pathfinder's test masses from the vibrations of launch.
"It's been a long mission — longer than anticipated — and the reason is we are a technology mission," Marirrodriga said in an interview with Spaceflight Now. "In some cases, we thought we had technical solutions and we had to change. We had to change because that technical solution was not working, and when you change something in the middle of a space mission, then that affects everything the rest of the way."
Speaking Friday in an phone interview from the Vega launch base in French Guiana, Marirrodriga the launch campaign for LISA Pathfinder has had no such glitches.
Technicians from Arianespace and ELV, the Vega's commercial operator and Italian prime contractor, began stacking the rocket on its launch pad in late September.
First erected was the P80 first stage solid rocket motor, which generates more than 650,000 pounds of thrust. Crews added the Vega's Zefiro 23 and Zefiro 9 second and third stage motors, then hoisted a liquid-fueled fourth stage atop the rocket.
The addition of LISA Pathfinder inside its payload fairing Thursday completed assembly of the rocket.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/154802.jpg) (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/154802.jpg)
This chart shows the journey of LISA Pathfinder from Earth to its orbit around the L1 Lagrange point. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab
 
LISA Pathfinder's cruise to the L1 Lagrange point will take about 50 days.
The Vega booster will first loft the 4,210-pound (1,910-kilogram) spacecraft into an elliptical parking orbit after its Dec. 2 launch. Marirrodriga told Spaceflight Now the launch will deposit LISA Pathfinder in an initial orbit with high point of about 954 miles (1,536 kilometers) and a low point of 124 miles (200 kilometers).
LISA Pathfinder carries with it a liquid propulsion module based on Airbus' telecommunications satellite bus, and six engine firings will propel the probe out of its low-altitude orbit toward L1.
Assuming an on-time launch Dec. 2, a test burn of the engine is scheduled for Dec. 5, followed by the six orbit-raising maneuvers Dec. 6, Dec. 7, Dec. 8 and Dec. 11, Marirrodriga said.
"We can say then we're going to L1," Marirrodriga said.
The mission may require course-correction burns on the journey to L1 in December and January, then LISA Pathfinder will be captured into an expansive, arcing pathway around the libration point.
The mission's science module will jettison the expendable propulsion package Jan. 22, assuming a launch in early December.
"You can argue then that we are already on a trajectory around L1 because from that moment on, the only thrusters that (LISA) Pathfinder will have are the micro-newton thrusters — the cold gas thrusters — so you already have to be injected into an orbit around L1," Marirrodriga said.
The complex procedure to release LISA Pathfinder's gold-platinum test cubes is set for early February, with its six-month baseline mission beginning soon after.

[свернуть]

Цитировать (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/185742.jpg) ESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF)
Some beautiful photos of the integration of the "egg" on to the rocket. [Credit: ESA–Manuel Pedoussaut, 2015]
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 3:11 - 20 нояб. 2015 г.

ЦитироватьWill this European satellite confirm Einstein's last unproven idea?
 The Lisa Pathfinder will test equipment for an orbiting observatory that will peer into the universe's darkest corners
 
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 (http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/nov/21/satellite-to-solve-einstein-last-theory#img-1) The Lisa Pathfinder will try to find gravitational waves outlined by Albert Einstein. Photograph: ESA
Robin McKie (http://www.theguardian.com/profile/robinmckie)
Saturday 21 November 2015 23.00 GMT Last modified on Sunday 22 November 2015 00.26 GMT
 
It was perhaps the greatest scientific achievement of the 20th century. And next week space scientists will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity in fitting style – by launching a probe to help demonstrate the accuracy of the theory's last unproven prediction: the existence of gravitational waves.
At 4.15am on 2 December, the satellite, known as Lisa Pathfinder (http://sci.esa.int/lisa-pathfinder/), is scheduled to be blasted into orbit from the European Space Agency's centre in Kourou, French Guiana. It will carry equipment that will be tested as components for a future orbiting gravitational wave observatory.

Спойлер

"The theory of general relativity is the scientific equivalent of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel," said Pedro Ferreira, professor of astrophysics at Oxford University (http://www.pedroferreira.co.uk/). "Both are unique works of genius and each could only have been done by one individual. And it is quite stunning that the Lisa Pathfinder satellite – which is designed to help find gravitational waves whose existence is predicted by the theory – is going to be launched on the exact anniversary of the publication of Einstein's work."
Gravitational waves are thought to be hurled across space when stars start throwing their weight around, for example, when they collapse into black holes or when pairs of super-dense neutron stars start to spin closer and closer to each other. These processes put massive strains on the fabric of space-time, pushing and stretching it so that ripples of gravitational energy radiate across the universe. These are gravitational waves.
Observations by US astronomers Joseph Taylor and Russell Hulse in the 1980s provided key supporting evidence of their existence. The pair showed that a neutron star, now known as the Hulse-Taylor pulsar, was part of a binary system whose orbit was decaying at a rate consistent with it pumping out gravitational waves. This work won Hulse and Taylor the 1993 Nobel prize in physics (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1993/). Since then, physicists have tried to spot gravitational waves directly, using ground-based devices with a common design: two long arms, set at right angles to each other, extending from a central point.
When a gravitational wave strikes, it should temporarily shrink one arm and slightly extend the other. That change can then be measured – albeit with considerable difficulty, because any change induced in an arm's length by a gravitational wave will only be a few hundred billion-billionths of a metre.
So far, researchers have yet to detect such changes. Once they do, one of the final hurdles to a complete understanding of the makeup of our universe will have been achieved. However, they are now extending their efforts to space because, in orbit, it should be possible to fly detectors that are 5 million kilometres apart and which will be better able to spot the compressing and stretching of space-time.
"Over these huge distances, the effect of a gravitational wave is much greater and so it becomes much easier to detect one," said Paul McNamara, the mission's project scientist.
The Pathfinder probe will test equipment that will later be used to build a full-scale orbiting gravitational wave detector, a device that will be known as Lisa, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. However, astronomers will have to wait some time before it arrives because the European Space (http://www.theguardian.com/science/space) Agency does not plan to launch Lisa until 2034.
"It is a simply a matter of budgets. There are so many other great space projects competing for money," said McNamara. "Nevertheless, a space-based gravitational wave observatory will revolutionise astronomy. We are not merely building a detector. We will have a machine that will use gravitational waves to study the universe.
"It will be an observatory and it will use a completely new medium to peer into the universe's dark corners. Of course, a great many technological hurdles will have to be overcome. This is a very ambitious project. Nevertheless, we believe we can do it."
At the heart of Lisa Pathfinder are two 2kg cubes of gold and platinum. These will be allowed to float free inside the craft, while being shielded from all forms of radiation and particle bombardment. The task of Lisa Pathfinder will then be to determine if it is possible to use lasers to measure deviations in their movements inside the craft with an accuracy of a trillionth of a metre. "We have worked very hard on this and we are sure that we can do it," added McNamara.
"This is a great mission and the fact that it is going to be launched exactly 100 years after the publication about general relativity on 2 December, 1915, just makes the experience all the richer for us."
 (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/140552.webp) (http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/nov/21/satellite-to-solve-einstein-last-theory#img-2)
Albert Einstein believed ripples of gravitational energy cross the universe. Photograph: Bettmann/CORBIS

THEORY THAT WAS YEARS IN THE MAKING

In his On the General Theory of Relativity, Albert Einstein (http://www.theguardian.com/science/alberteinstein) took previous ideas about gravity – which had been seen as a force acting between objects – and replaced them with a description of it as being a geometric property of space and time.
Many predictions emanated from this idea: the existence of super-dense collapsed stars – now known as black holes – gravitational lensing, in which light from a distant source is distorted by a huge, intermediary object, gravitational waves and many others.
"All of these phenomena have now been observed – with one exception, and that is gravitational waves," said Pedro Ferreira, whose book The Perfect Theory, published last year, outlined the struggles that Einstein endured in working out his theory.
"It was like a piece of art, the effort of one man, who struggled for seven years just to get things right," said Ferreira. "He worked on his ideas and equations exhaustively and then presented his theory in a series of lectures in November 1915 culminating in a final presentation on the 24th. Then he published in an unbelievably short time on 2 December."
At the time the publication of Einstein's theory attracted little attention. Europe was then convulsed by war. However, the theory made global headlines shortly after the war, when the British astronomer Arthur Eddington studied star positions during a total solar eclipse and found their light was being bent by the Sun in a manner consistent with Einstein's theory.
However, it took the development of radio astronomy to fully underline the importance of general relativity. "Astronomers began to detect ultra-energetic, incredibly dense objects that could only be understood in terms of their gravitational fields," said Ferreira. "Gravity had to be really, really important, and the only theory that makes it possible for us to understand gravity is general relativity."

[свернуть]

ЦитироватьNext Arianespace Flight VV06: Vega to orbit LISA Pathfinder for the European Space Agency (ESA)

Kourou, November 25, 2015
For the 11th launch of 2015 from the Guiana Space Center, the Vega light launcher on its overall sixth mission, this time on behalf of ESA, will orbit the LISA Pathfinder technology demonstrator, into an elliptical low earth orbit for a mission to the L1 Lagrange point.
With this seventh launch of the year overall for European Governments, this time focusing on space research and science, Arianespace, once again, reflects the company's assigned mission of ensuring independent access to space for Europe.
The launch will be carried out from the Vega launch complex (SLV) in Kourou, French Guiana.

Targeted orbit:  Elliptic low earth orbit for a mission to the L1 Lagrange point (at 1.5 million km from Earth)
 Perigee: 207 km
 Apogee: 1,540 km
 Inclination: 5.96 degrees.
Liftoff is scheduled for Wednesday, December 2, 2015, at exactly:
 • 01:15:00 a.m. (local time in French Guiana),
 • 11:15:00 p.m. (Washington, DC), on December 1st
 • 04:15:00 a.m. (UTC),
 • 05:15:00 a.m. (Paris).

The mission, from liftoff to release of the satellite, will last 1 hour, 45 minutes and 33 seconds.
The launcher will carry a total payload of 1,986 kg, including 1,906 kg for the LISA Pathfinder satellite, which will be injected into its targeted orbit.
The Launch Readiness Review (LRR) will take place on Monday, November 30, 2015 in Kourou, to authorize the start of operations for the final countdown.

LISA Pathfinder
 Developed by ESA, the LISA Pathfinder technology demonstrator will pave the way for future spaceborne gravitational-wave observatories that will ultimately observe and precisely measure gravitational waves, "ripples in the fabric of space-time" predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.
LISA Pathfinder is the first step toward observing Einstein's gravitational waves from space. Its mission objective is to test the innovative technologies needed to directly detect these distortions.
 
To watch a live, high-speed transmission of the launch, go to www.arianespace.com (http://www.arianespace.com) on December 2, 2015 (including local commentary in French or English), starting 20 minutes before liftoff. You can also follow the launch live on your iPhone or iPad (the Arianespace.tv app is free).
For further information, download the launch press kit here: www.arianespace.com/news-launch-kits/launch-kit.asp (http://www.arianespace.com/news-launch-kits/launch-kit.asp)

About Arianespace
 Arianespace is the world's leading satellite launch company. Founded in 1980, Arianespace deploys a family of three launchers, Ariane, Soyuz and Vega, to meet the needs of both commercial and government customers, and has performed 270 launches to date. Backed by its 20 shareholders and the European Space Agency, Arianespace is the only company in the world capable of launching all types of payloads into all orbits, from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. As of November 25, 2015, Arianespace had carried out 227 Ariane launches, 38 Soyuz launches (12 at the Guiana Space Center and 26 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, via Starsem) and five Vega launches. Arianespace is headquartered in Evry, near Paris, and has a facility at the Guiana Space Center, plus local offices in Washington D.C., Tokyo and Singapore.

ЦитироватьLauncher assembled: Vega receives the LISA Pathfinder payload for its December 2 flight
 
November 25, 2015 – Vega Flight VV06
Another Vega launcher has completed its assembly process, marking a major milestone as preparations continue for Arianespace's 11th mission of the year from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.
This activity concluded with the integration of Vega's "upper composite," which consists of the LISA Pathfinder scientific space probe passenger and its protective payload fairing. Installation took place at the Spaceport's SLV launch site, inside the facility's protective mobile gantry.
The lightweight Vega is one of three launchers operated by Arianespace from French Guiana, along with the medium-lift Soyuz and heavyweight Ariane 5. Its development was performed in a multinationally-financed European Space Agency program, with the vehicle's design authority and prime contractor role performed by Italy's ELV company – a joint venture of Avio and the Italian Space Agency.
Vega entered service in February 2012, and its five missions to date – all successful – have orbited a variety of payloads, ranging from Earth imaging satellites and climate change observation platforms to technology demonstrators and an experimental spaceplane.
LISA Pathfinder was developed in a European Space Agency (ESA) program and built by prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space. Produced to study the ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, it will be placed in an initial elliptical Earth orbit on the December 2 Vega mission – which is designated Flight VV06 in Arianespace's numbering system.
 The spacecraft's own propulsion module will then be utilized to reach the operational orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1) – located approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. LISA Pathfinder's total liftoff mass is estimated at 1,906 kg.

Launch timing for Vega Flight VV06
UTC 04:15:00 on December 2, 2015
 
(http://www.arianespace.com/images/missionup-dates/2015/1367-1.jpg)
Vega's completion is highlighted in this photo series, beginning with the "upper composite's" move to the Spaceport's SLV launch site on a special transporter.

(http://www.arianespace.com/images/missionup-dates/2015/1367-2.jpg)
(http://www.arianespace.com/images/missionup-dates/2015/1367-3.jpg)
This component subsequently was hoisted to the appropriate level of the launch site's mobile gantry, positioned over Vega and then integrated with the light-lift vehicle.

ЦитироватьVega is cleared for its December 2 liftoff with LISA Pathfinder to study the ripples in space-time
 
  November 30, 2015 – Vega Flight VV06
(http://www.arianespace.com/images/missionup-dates/2015/1368-lg.jpg)
Following today's launch readiness review at the Spaceport in French Guiana, Arianespace's lightweight Vega has been given the go-ahead for its mission Wednesday to orbit the European Space Agency's pioneering LISA Pathfinder technology demonstrator.
This regular step in Arianespace's pre-launch preparations confirmed that the Vega launcher and its LISA Pathfinder payload are ready for flight, along with the Spaceport's infrastructure, and the downrange tracking station network.
As Arianespace's 11th total mission so far this year across its complete family of Vega, Ariane 5 and Soyuz vehicles, Wednesday's early-morning launch – designated Vega Flight VV06 in the company's numbering system – will lift off at exactly 1:15 a.m. local time in French Guiana.
Following liftoff fr om the Spaceport's SLV complex, the powered phase of Vega's first three stages will last six and a half minutes, before separation of the upper composite with the AVUM (Attitude & Vernier Upper Module) stage, payload adapter and LISA Pathfinder.
Approximately one minute later, the AVUM will ignite for its first burn – lasting almost nine minutes – which is to be followed by a ballistic phase of about 85 minutes. Finally, the AVUM will perform a second powered phase of some one and a half minutes, in advance of LISA Pathfinder's deployment into an elliptical low-Earth parking orbit to complete the one-hour, 45-minute mission.
LISA Pathfinder is a technology demonstrator developed in a European Space Agency program and built by prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space. After being orbited by Vega, this space probe will utilize its own propulsion module to reach an operational orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1), from wh ere it will study the ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
Flight VV06 will be Vega's sixth overall mission since it entered service in 2012, and the lightweight vehicle's third launch this year.
 
Launch timing for Vega Flight VV06
UTC 04:15:00 on December 2, 2015

ЦитироватьAt 04:04 GMT (05:04 CET) on Thursday, 3 December, ESA's LISA Pathfinder is set to lift off on a 30 m-tall Vega rocket from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, for a 105-minute ride into orbit.

ЦитироватьThe liftoff will be streamed live (http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Watch_LISA_Pathfinder_launch_and_media_briefing) via two separate programmes on Wednesday: launch webcast live from Kourou (http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Watch_LISA_Pathfinder_launch_and_media_briefing), 03:44 GMT (04:44 CET) start; and a media briefing live from ESOC (http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Watch_LISA_Pathfinder_launch_and_media_briefing), 05:30 GMT (06:30 CET) start.

ЦитироватьESA Operations ‏@esaoperations 10 мин. (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/672208622051590144)
 ESOC confirms ground segment, systems & team remain GREEN for launch #VV06 #LISAPathfinder 04:04GMT - 05:04 CET

ЦитироватьThe Vega mission with Europe's pioneering LISA Pathfinder technology demonstrator is now underway following tonight's liftoff from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

LISA Pathfinder will be placed in an initial elliptical Earth orbit at 1 hr., 45 min., 33 sec. after liftoff. The spacecraft's own propulsion module then will be utilized to reach the operational orbit around the first Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L1) – located approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.

Produced to study the ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, LISA Pathfinder was developed in a European Space Agency (ESA) program and built by prime contractor Airbus Defence and Space.

ЦитироватьПАРИЖ, 3 декабря. /ТАСС/. Европейское космическое агентство (ЕКА) произвело успешный запуск легкой ракеты-носителя Vega с космодрома Куру во Французской Гвиане. Об этом ЕКА сообщило на своем сайте.

На борту отправленной в космос ракеты находится важный научно-исследовательский аппарат LISA Pathfinder, предназначенный для обеспечения начального этапа обширной программы по изучению гравитационных волн.

"LISA Pathfinder запущен с Куру на носителе Vega", - говорится в сообщении ЕКА. Ракета стартовала в 07:04 мск.

Первоначально запуск был назначен на 2 декабря, но был отложен по техническим причинам.

Этот старт стал шестым для легкой европейской ракеты Vega, являющейся вместе с тяжелым носителем Ariane и российским "Союзом" основными ракетами-носителями, используемыми ЕКА.

ЦитироватьAnna Spacedust пишет:
По случаю перевела пару роликов с сайта ЕКА, вдруг кому пригодится - https://cloud.mail.ru/public/4k2p/YpX3hD926

ЦитироватьBH пишет:
Часть верхней - четвертой - ступени этой ракеты разработало днепропетровское конструкторское бюро "Южное", а завод "Южный машиностроительный завод" построил маршевый двигатель РД-843.

ЦитироватьSOE пишет:
Все в норме с аппаратом, идут плановые операции с минимум внеплановых

ЦитироватьESA_LPF ‏@ESA_LPF  (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF)  4 часа назад (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF/status/689745877435551744)
ESA_LPF Ретвитнул(а) ESA Operations
Final big burn complete! Looking forward to next milestone: propulsion module separation, on Friday 22 January
ESA_LPF добавил(а),

Цитировать  (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/689734589518995456)
 (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/159341.jpg) ESA Operations @esaoperations
LISAPathfinder">#LISAPathfinder (//undefined) burn complete!

ESA_LPF (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF) ретвитнул(а)
  (https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/459680535460057088/4bMahzdb_bigger.png) ESA Operations ‏@esaoperations  (https://twitter.com/esaoperations)  4 часа назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/689734296265973760)
#LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash) final hot thruster burn has started - temperature & pressure in propulsion system nominal

ESA_LPF (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF) ретвитнул(а)
  (https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/459680535460057088/4bMahzdb_bigger.png) ESA Operations ‏@esaoperations  (https://twitter.com/esaoperations)  4 часа назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/689733493279055872)
#LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash)'s last planned 'hot' thruster burn starts 10:00CET lasts 64 seconds - will push us onto #L1 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/L1?src=hash) arrival trajectory
 
ESA_LPF (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF) ретвитнул(а)
  (https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/459680535460057088/4bMahzdb_bigger.png) ESA Operations ‏@esaoperations  (https://twitter.com/esaoperations)  5 часов назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/689733004877545472)
Commands for today's thruster burn uploaded yesterday. #LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash) now being followed by our #Cebreros (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cebreros?src=hash) station
 (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/159340.jpg)

ESA_LPF (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF) ретвитнул(а)

Цитировать (https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/459680535460057088/4bMahzdb_bigger.png) ESA Operations ‏@esaoperations  (https://twitter.com/esaoperations)  5 часов назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/689728626451939328)
Control team & #LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash) spacecraft ready for this AM's final thruster burn before arrival at #L1 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/L1?src=hash) on Friday @ESA_LPF (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF) @LISACommunity (https://twitter.com/LISACommunity)

Цитировать Airbus Defence&Space ‏@AirbusDS  (https://twitter.com/AirbusDS) 2h ago (https://twitter.com/AirbusDS/status/690519123835633664)

#LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash) separates from prop. module on way to L1 – another @AirbusDS (https://twitter.com/AirbusDS) success.

ЦитироватьThis timelapse video shows the preparations for LISA Pathfinder's launch at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The video spans three weeks, from 12 November 2015 until the launch on 3 December.

Over this period, the spacecraft was attached to the payload adaptor of the Vega launcher, encapsulated within the half-shells of the rocket fairing, transferred to the launcher assembly area, and installed on top of Vega inside the mobile gantry, which was withdrawn shortly before liftoff.

ЦитироватьLuigi Ferraioli ‏@luigiferrtwt  (https://twitter.com/luigiferrtwt) 1h ago (https://twitter.com/luigiferrtwt/status/694902572969254913)

Plungers are safely taking care of both test masses. Decaging has been a success! #GoLPF (https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoLPF?src=hash) #LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash)

ЦитироватьКНР будет изучать гравитационные волны вместе с ЕКА
13:44 17.02.2016

ПЕКИН, 17 фев — РИА Новости, Иван Булатов. Китай будет изучать гравитационные волны вместе с Европейским космическим агентством (ESA), сообщает в среду Международное радио Китая (CRI).
Об одном из главных событий в истории науки — обнаружении гравитационных волн через 100 лет после того, как их существование было предсказано создателем теории относительности Альбертом Эйнштейном, объявила в минувший четверг группа американских ученых в Вашингтоне. Волны были зафиксированы 14 сентября 2015 года детекторами гравитационной обсерватории LIGO в штатах Луизиана и Вашингтон.

Как заявил член академии наук Китая У Юэлян, академия подготовила проект по изучению гравитационных волн, получивший название "Тайцзи". По его словам, план проекта будет завершен позднее в этом году. "Гравитационные волны можно разделить на три типа в соответствии с их частотой. Низкочастотные гравитационные волны могут иметь больше источников, чем остальные два типа... Но эти источники еще предстоит обнаружить, и мы к этому стремимся", — сказал он.

По его словам, проект китайский ученых включает в себя два плана. Первый заключается в совместном участии в проекте eLISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) Европейского космического агентства. Второй — в запуске группы спутников, они должны подтвердить информацию, которую удастся получить в рамках eLISA.

Как отмечает Международное радио Китая, проект "Тайцзи" будет похож на ранее озвученный проект "Тяньцинь", представленный Институтом астрономии и космических наук Чжуншаньского университета. По словам У Юэляна, проекты при этом будут иметь различные цели.

"Проект "Тяньцинь" нацелен на другой. Оба проекта должны изучать гравитационные волны различных частот. Спутники проекта "Тяньцинь" будут летать вокруг Земли в поисках гравитационных волн, а наши спутники будут летать вокруг Солнца и помогать изучать теории, которые стоят за гравитационными волнами, а также эволюцию Вселенной", — отметил он.

Ранее декан Института астрономии и космических наук Чжуншаньского университета Ли Мяо сообщил, что Китай начнет изучение гравитационных волн.

По его словам, китайский проект изучения гравитационных волн "Тяньцинь" был инициирован университетом еще в июле 2015 года и в настоящий момент ожидает утверждения со стороны правительства КНР. Проект состоит из четырех этапов, реализация которых запланирована на ближайшие 15-20 лет. В этот же промежуток времени Китай запустит в космос три спутника, которые будут отслеживать существование гравитационных волн.

Специально для проекта на горе Фэнхуан в округе Чжухай (провинция Гуандун) будет построена обсерватория и лаборатория, которые займут площадь более 10 тысяч квадратных метров. По словам Ли Мяо, Китай углубит техническое сотрудничество со знаменитыми институтами, а также будет привлекать иностранных специалистов.

ЦитироватьГравителескоп LPF в 100 раз превзошел ожидания ученых, сообщает ЕКА
13:15 07.06.2016
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/101656.jpg)
© Фото: ESA–P. Sebirot, 2015

МОСКВА, 7 июн – РИА Новости. Прототип космического гравитационного телескопа LISA Pathfinder успешно завершил первый этап своей работы, в сотни раз превысив тот предел в чувствительности в наблюдениях за гравитационными волнами, который был запланирован ЕКА, рассказали ученые на пресс-конференции в штаб-квартире агентства.
"LPF был построен для того, чтобы мы могли проверить и показать, что мы можем построить установку в космосе, которая могла бы следить за гравитационными волнами, колебаниями в структуре пространства-времени. Успех в работе LPF и стабилизации ее тестовых масс говорит о том, что мы можем начать работу над созданием LISA, космической обсерватории для наблюдений за гравитационной Вселенной", — заявил Пол Макнамара (Paul McNamara), научный руководитель проекта LISA Pathfinder.
После удачного запуска в начале декабря прошлого года LISA Pathfinder весь январь двигался к точке Лагранжа L1, на расстоянии в 1,5 миллиона километров от Земли, где находится его орбита. В феврале специалисты ЕКА завершили проверку всех приборов телескопа и сняли ограничители и фиксаторы с двух кубов массой в два килограмма, которые будут играть роль "главной скрипки" в поиске гравитационных волн. Этот процесс был завершен 1 марта, и сегодня, после нескольких месяцев проверок, ученые объявили о первых результатах наблюдений.
Как объясняет Макнамара, главной целью этих наблюдений был не поиск гравитационных волн, а наблюдения за тем, насколько инженерам, создавшим LPF, удалось стабилизировать колебания зонда под действием солнечного ветра и других внешних сил, удерживая его стенки на стабильном расстоянии от "плавающих" кубов. Три месяца наблюдений показали, что подобная задача была решена с огромным запасом.

ЕКА: Гравиобсерватория LPF начала свою научную работу в космосе (http://ria.ru/science/20160309/1387180798.html)
 
Мартин Хьюитсон (Martin Hewitson), заместитель Макнамары, рассказал, что ученым и инженерам LPF удалось добиться того, чтобы корпус телескопа не сдвигался по отношению к кубам на расстояния, не превышающие нескольких фемтометров (10 в минус 15 степени метра). Это заметно превышает те требования, которые ЕКА выдвигало к конструкторам зонда, и превышает ожидания самих ученых примерно в 100 раз.
По словам Хьютсона, LISA, если она будет построена, будет способна ощущать сдвиги кубов на расстояния порядка долей фемтометра (10 в минус 15 степени метра), что сделает ее самой чувствительной гравитационной обсерваторией Земли.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/101578.jpg) (http://ria.ru/science/20160216/1375519471.html)
© ESA/ATG medialab

Гравителескоп LISA Pathfinder перешел в "научный" режим работы (http://ria.ru/science/20160216/1375519471.html)
 
По словам Стефано Витале (Stefano Vitale) из университета Трента (Италия), чувствительность  LISA Pathfinder уже превышает порог, необходимый для поиска низкочастотных гравитационных волн, порождаемых сливающимися галактиками и другими крупными объектами.
Как отмечает Витале, уже в марте стало ясно, что LPF не только превосходит требования ЕКА, но и приближается к тем показателям чувствительности, которые были запланированы для телескопа LISA, состоящего из трех зондов. похожих на LPF. Этот показатель, по словам ученого, можно легко улучшить, если полностью выкачать воздух из тех камер, где находятся кубы.
"Главный вывод – мы можем спокойно начинать разработку и сборку LISA", — заключает Витале.

Цитировать (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/29262.jpg) Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust  (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust)  3 ч.3 часа назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/825371169050161154)  
Dunn: thruster 4 on LISA Pathfinder suffered a short in October and no longer operational; slightly degraded performance. #apsapril (https://twitter.com/hashtag/apsapril?src=hash)
 
  (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/29262.jpg) Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust  (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust)  3 ч.3 часа назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/825370557071831040)  
Charlie Dunn, JPL: LISA Pathfinder has demonstrated the drag-free control needed for future LISA gravitational wave observatory. #apsapril (https://twitter.com/hashtag/apsapril?src=hash)

Цитировать (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/29262.jpg) Jeff Foust ‏@jeff_foust  (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust)  7 мин.7 минут назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/825784992470929408)
Paul McNamara, ESA: LISA Pathfinder end of mission planned for April with maneuver to drift spacecraft away from Earth-Sun L1. #apsapril (https://twitter.com/hashtag/apsapril?src=hash)

Цитировать (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/68356.jpg)  ESA Operations‏Подлинная учетная запись @esaoperations (https://twitter.com/esaoperations)  12 мин.12 минут назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/887247572418662401)  
#LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash) ends at 20:00CEST today - watch the End of Mission report from ESATV @ESA_LPF (https://twitter.com/ESA_LPF) http://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos/2017/07/Lisa_Pathfinder_end_of_Mission ... (https://t.co/9jJIH6YIKy)
 (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/164909.jpg)

ЦитироватьLisa Pathfinder end of Mission

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/220694.jpg) (https://www.youtube.com/user/ESA) European Space Agency, ESA (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIBaDdAbGlFDeS33shmlD0A)

Опубликовано: 18 июл. 2017 г.

The LISA Pathfinder mission ends on 18 July 2017 after a successful demonstration of the technology needed to detect gravitational waves in space. These vibrations in spacetime, first predicted by Einstein over a hundred years ago, are produced by huge astronomical events - such as two black holes colliding - and will allow scientists to open new windows into our universe.

The success of the LISA Pathfinder mission has paved the way for the newly sel ected LISA mission which, when built and launched, will detect gravitational waves from objects up to a million times larger than our Sun.

The film features interview soundbites fr om Dr Paul McNamara, LISA Pathfinder Project Scientist, at the European Space Agency's European Technology and Science facility (ESTEC) in The Netherlands.

Цитировать (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/68356.jpg) ESA Operations‏Подлинная учетная запись @esaoperations (https://twitter.com/esaoperations) 57 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/887320633343868929)

We have #AOS (https://twitter.com/hashtag/AOS?src=hash)! #LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash) controllers established contact with their craft for the last time just after 16:00CEST
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/164939.jpg)

Цитировать (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/68356.jpg) ESA Operations‏Подлинная учетная запись @esaoperations (https://twitter.com/esaoperations) 57 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/887321182642606081)

Talking to space! ESA's 35m deep-space station at Cebreros (Spain) now linked with #LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash) for the final pass #EOM (https://twitter.com/hashtag/EOM?src=hash)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/164938.jpg)


55 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/887321696562184192)

Channel your inner mission control engineer! The waveform shown here is the carrier signal from #LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash) (1/2)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/164940.jpg)


53 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/887322047361241089)

It will disappear abt 10secs after the last command is sent at 20:00CEST, indicating that #LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash)'s transmitter is OFF (2/2)

Цитировать (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/68356.jpg) ESA Operations‏Подлинная учетная запись @esaoperations (https://twitter.com/esaoperations) 42 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/887325525739536384)

Update from the Main Control Room: A-chain of #LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash)'s redundant on-board systems now OFF & craft is flying on its B-chain

Цитировать (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/68356.jpg) ESA Operations‏Подлинная учетная запись @esaoperations (https://twitter.com/esaoperations) 9 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/887334540494155779)

Last update from #LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash) end-of-mission briefing: Stefano Vitale explains how the test masses will work in the future #LISA (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISA?src=hash)

Video (https://twitter.com/i/videos/tweet/887334540494155779)

Цитировать (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/68356.jpg) ESA Operations‏Подлинная учетная запись @esaoperations (https://twitter.com/esaoperations) 6 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/887362602661228546)

Readying to send #LastCommand (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LastCommand?src=hash) to #LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash) - mission team, scientists, friends & family join to say farewell
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/164954.jpg)

Цитировать (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/68356.jpg) ESA Operations‏Подлинная учетная запись @esaoperations (https://twitter.com/esaoperations) 2 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/887363819340779525)

#LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash)'s heart still beating! This signal will fall to nothing 10secs after PI Stefano Vitale sends last command at ~20:00cest
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/164955.jpg)

Цитировать (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/68356.jpg) ESA Operations‏Подлинная учетная запись @esaoperations (https://twitter.com/esaoperations) 16 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/887371188460236801)

#LAST (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LAST?src=hash) COMMAND AWAY #LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash)


15 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/887371273600454656)

#LAST (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LAST?src=hash) COMMAND sent #LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash) now fully passivated & shut down on a heliocentric disposal orbit #Eom (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Eom?src=hash)

Цитировать(https://scontent-ams3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-1/p80x80/15319184_10154106968150667_6271828157992883442_n.png?oh=a0e738d54f0d9be37167be6f5f7f933f&oe=59F5F83E) (https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanSpaceAgency/?ref=nf&hc_ref=ARRn6sfZjsJ5GqZmaPRSj1NoYWOn4iRP6vdQJIhoFBjlYNRnbyxErOCP0OxX9ImZxjs) ESA - European Space Agency (https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanSpaceAgency/?hc_ref=ARRhaI-GksfRjUDPZtUvWE7iHaOVUcHp08NJhKVcoivuZrpkK7_yF-4gMBC9o_TiygQ) был(-а) в прямом эфире. · 32 мин (https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanSpaceAgency/videos/10155089221120667/) ·

Live video from the Main Control Room at ESOC, ESA's mission control centre, Darmstadt, Germany, as we get ready to send the final command to LISA Pathfinder.
(https://scontent-ams3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t15.0-10/20178214_10155089503205667_4363152105142222848_n.jpg?oh=5c74e723626e48dae57d9efa7fda1b8d&oe=5A0DC400) (https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanSpaceAgency/videos/10155089221120667/)

ЦитироватьLISA Pathfinder Spacecraft ends Communications with Earth after superb Mission Success
 July 18, 2017 (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/lisa-pathfinder-spacecraft-ends-communications-with-earth/)

ESA's LISA Pathfinder received its final commands fr om Earth on Tuesday, marking the end of a highly successful mission of one and a half years that demonstrated the working principle for a future gravitational waves observatory and completed a series of technical tests in its last weeks of operation to help inform the design of the future observatory mission – opening up an entirely new field of astronomy.

The primary objective of the LISA Pathfinder mission was the demonstration of a key technology needed for the measurement of gravitational waves – tiny ripples in the fabric of space predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago and measured for the first time by the ground-based LIGO observatory in 2015.

Спойлер

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/153227.jpg) (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2015/12/LISA_Pathfinder_launch_composite_at_IABG_s_space_test_centre.jpg)
Photo: ESA

While Earth-based instruments like LIGO are limited to frequencies above 100 cycles per second, a space-based observatory could measure waves with frequencies of a fraction of 1 Hertz by placing test masses into perfect drag-free flight, only influenced by gravity, and measuring their relative position to one another to detect a passing gravitational wave. However, detecting gravitational waves will require test masses to be kept motionless to unprecedented levels of accuracy since gravitational waves will only cause a displacement on a scale of a few millionths of a millionth of a meter over a cosmic distance of a million Kilometers.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/153230.jpg) (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2016/06/ns_gw_art.jpg)
Gravitational waves are created by the interaction of supermassive objects – Image: R. Hurt/Caltech

LISA Pathfinder was tasked with demonstrating whether drag-free flight would be possible and the small spacecraft also put to the test the laser-based measurement system that allows the test mass position to be measured with pico-meter accuracy – even over distances of one million Kilometers.

An operational LISA mission would consist of three spacecraft, deployed into a precise triangular formation 2.5 million Kilometers apart to detect passing gravitational waves that stem from super-massive phenomena in the Universe like two interacting black holes, supernova explosions or Neutron Star binaries. Retiring any technical risks prior to the tremendous financial investment in LISA was the primary goal of the $630 million pathfinder mission.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/153235.jpg) (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2017/07/LISA_Technology_Package.jpg)
The LISA Technology Package with two gold test masses and a highly precise laser interferometer – Image: ESA/ATG Medialab

Launching in December 2015 and arriving at its remote operating location 1.5 million Kilometers from Earth in January 2016, the 480-Kilogram LISA Pathfinder began its mission by demonstrating drag-free flight using its test mass package (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/lisa-technology-package/) and a Cold Gas Micropropulsion System (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/cold-gas-micro-propulsion-system/) to counter any internal and external influences arising from solar pressure or cosmic dust impacts to keep the masses in an environment only driven by gravity. Later in the mission, the cold gas thrusters were switched off and NASA's Disturbance Reduction System (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/disturbance-reduction-system/) took over to demonstrate a second micropropulsion system which made use of Colloid Micro-Newton Thrusters.

According to ESA, the free-fall environment of the two test masses was better than originally required – only experiencing a relative acceleration of ten millionths of a billionth of Earth's gravity, around 10,000 times better than any previous drag-free mission – making LISA Pathfinder the most sensitive instrument for acceleration ever flown.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/153231.jpg) (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2017/05/ESA_LPF_performance_infographic_20160607.jpg)
LISA Pathfinder exceeds Expectations – Image: ESA

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/153228.jpg) (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2016/06/LISA_Pathfinder_in_space.jpg)
Image: ESA–C.Carreau

LISA exceeded expectations by orders of magnitude. In fact, the instrument achieved its mission requirements within the first day of operations and further tweaking showed LISA Pathfinder's precision for frequencies between 60 milli-Hertz and 1 Hz surpassed the requirement for an operational LISA mission by a factor of over 100. At lower frequencies down to 1 mHz, scientists found, LISA would be limited by gas molecules bouncing off the test masses and causing disturbance while the spacecraft was still outgassing.

Having tested out both the Cold Gas and the Colloid Thrusters over a six-month primary mission, LISA Pathfinder entered a six-month extended mission in December, continuing in orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1 that offered a stable gravitational and thermal environment for the test mission.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/153229.jpg) (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2016/06/LPF_Operating_in_space_20160614.jpg)
Image: ESA–C.Carreau

In January, engineers switched off all but the most essential heaters on the spacecraft to cool the vehicle from a steady temperature of 22°C to 11°C to slow down the outgassing the reduce the mean particle speed in order to see whether that would affect the measurement efficiency at the lower frequencies. By February, the team determined that the signal-to-noise ratio for the 1 – 60 mHz range had reached acceptable levels for a future gravitational waves observatory.

In addition to its technology demonstration mission, LISA Pathfinder also produced auxiliary data found valuable in a number of scientific fields. The mission achieved the most sensitive measurement of the perturbation of the free-fall motion caused by cosmic rays; LISA Pathfinder data will also be re-purposed to assess the distribution and influx of cosmic dust particles and the mission delivered data useful for quantum physicists.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/153236.png) (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2017/07/LPF_AST2_20170126_4-1024x768.png)
LISA Pathfinder Star Tracker Exposure for NEO Hunt – Image: ESA

Since January, LISA Pathfinder's redundant Star Tracker had been updated with a software patch to collect one ten-minute long-exposure image per hour for the remainder of the mission to support ESA's Near-Earth Object office in their search for asteroids. Several asteroids have been identified in the images and additional work is underway to analyze the data and fit trajectories for all NEOs discovered by the mission. The test was primarily used to evaluate this imaging technique for potential future space-based NEO observatories that could patch up a blind corner as incoming asteroids can not be seen from Earth when approaching from the sun's direction.

Heading into the last four weeks of mission operations, engineers started pushing the spacecraft's various systems to the lim it to gather valuable data on their performance and help with the design of the operational LISA mission. Teams looked at the properties of the vacuum enclosures holding the test masses, the charging properties of the gold test masses themselves and tried out the test mass grabbing & release mechanisms in different operational conditions.

The scientific part of the mission ended on June 30 and engineers were handed full control over the mission for some hardware tests that could not be safely performed during the science mission. First up were a series of thermal tests with the spacecraft in different orientations relative to the sun to assess thermal effects on various subsystem components including the performance of the micropropulsion system. Other tests looked at potential magnetic interference from the pressure regulation valves in the propulsion system on the craft's magnetic momentum and test masses.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/153232.jpg) (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2017/07/Cold_gas_thruster_nozzles-1024x683.jpg)
LISA Pathfinder Cold Gas Nozzles – Photo: ESA

Engineering limits on the micropropulsion system were tested out by reducing the tank pressure to under one bar and a range of other tests involving the thrusters were conducted over a period of around one week including a full thrust test and firings at different temperatures to fully understand the system's capabilities to improve the performance of future spacecraft. Also, engineers measured the output of the solar array to asses degradation after an extended stint in the challenging space environment.

Intentional power fluctuations were introduced into the Laser Interferometer that measures the distance between the test masses with pico-meter accuracy to demonstrate its operational envelope and potential influence on the masses. More capture & release tests with the masses were on tap on July 13 using the electrostatic control system within the test mass enclosure to zero-in on its limitations.

On July 14, the Mission Team reacted on short notice and postponed a spin-up maneuvering test and put the craft back into science mode to measure the charge build up on the test masses under high solar activity as there had just been an Earth-directed solar flare. Teams also completed another low-pressure test on the thrusters going to a tank pressure of only 0.2 bar.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/153233.jpg) (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2017/07/DFCLlVuXsAEuJh-.jpg)
ESA Mission Control before Sending LPF's final Command – Photo: ESA

Starting on Monday, teams at the European Space Operations Center began the process of passivation – placing LISA Pathfinder in a fully safe state for the end of its mission with all tanks vented down, batteries discharged and transmitters disabled for all eternity. Data was dumped from the spacecraft memory and the LISA Technology Package was powered off, marking the end of test mass operations after over 16 months. Commands were also uplinked to disable the redundant spacecraft computer and put the vehicle into safe mode.

On Tuesday, LISA Pathfinder checked in for one last four-hour communications pass, receiving commands to fully power off the A-chain on onboard systems. At 18 UTC, teams at ESOC sent the final command to the faraway spacecraft, being transmitted by the Cebreros ground station in Spain and reaching the spacecraft some five seconds later after traversing 1.5 million Kilometers, instructing the spacecraft to power off the transmitter and shut down all remaining onboard systems. The carrier signal from LISA Pathfinder faded ten seconds after the command was sent as the craft went silent for the rest of time.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/153234.jpg) (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2017/07/LISA_concept.jpg)
LISA Mission Concept – Image: ESA[/COLOR][/SIZE]

To comply with debris safety regulations, LISA Pathfinder completed a five-day "de-orbit" maneuver in April – firing its thrusters to depart the L1 location and enter a stable orbit around the sun inside that of Earth. Trajectory assessments showed a chance of under 0.2% for the spacecraft intersecting Earth or the Moon in the next 100 years.

""Before LISA Pathfinder, gravitational wave astronomy from space was a theoretical possibility, with its future implementation hidden behind a thick, dark wall," said ESA Head of Mission Operations Paolo Ferri. "This mission has opened a 'door' in this wall. The road to achieving a future mission that will detect gravitational waves is still very long, but we can see it and we can now start planning our long journey to reach it."

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/153226.jpg) (http://spaceflight101.com/lisa-pathfinder/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2015/11/Searching_for_gravitational_waves_with_LISA.jpg)
Image: ESA

ESA's Science Program Committee officially cleared the way for the LISA mission to move forward on June 20, allowing it to enter a detailed phase of study to work out the spacecraft design and precise scientific scope of the mission which – if passing final selection – would be looking at a launch date in 2034.

LISA, going by the full name of Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, would have a launch mass of 6,000 Kilograms, requiring an Ariane 6 launch vehicle to send the three craft on a 1.5-year drift into their independent heliocentric orbit for a primary mission of at least four years. NASA is expected to be involved as a partner, covering around 20% of the cost through instruments and other technologies.

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ЦитироватьZOOR пишет:
Неужели нельзя было придумать куда его в интересах науки двинуть?

Цитировать (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/68356.jpg) ESA Operations‏Подлинная учетная запись @esaoperations (https://twitter.com/esaoperations) 10 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/887385915487903745)

Last command sent to #LISAPathfinder (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LISAPathfinder?src=hash) at 19:57CEST by @VitaleTrident (https://twitter.com/VitaleTrident) from #ESOC (https://twitter.com/hashtag/ESOC?src=hash) Operations complete!
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/164953.jpg)

ЦитироватьPioneering probe for gravitational wave observatory ends mission   
July 19, 2017 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/07/) Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)

The European Space Agency's LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, now sailing around the sun on a trajectory away from Earth, was deactivated Tuesday after a nearly 18-month mission testing previously-untried lasers, vacuum enclosures, exotic gold-platinum cubes and micro-thrusters needed for a trio of gravitational wave observatories set for launch in the 2030s.

Stefano Vitale, principal investigator of the LISA Pathfinder mission's core instruments, sent the long-planned command to "passivate" the probe at 1800 GMT (2 p.m. EDT) Tuesday from the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany.

The end of LISA Pathfinder's mission Tuesday marked another turning point in gravitational wave research, a field of astrophysics reinvigorated in the last two years by two major advances, according to Paul McNamara, the mission's project scientist at ESA.

Спойлер

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/126577.jpg)
Artist's illustration of the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft. Credit: ESA

First came the launch of LISA Pathfinder on Dec. 3, 2015. Three months later, scientists announced the first confirmed detection of gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime produced by the movement of massive objects in space, such as immense supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies.

The gravitational waves, first predicted more than a century ago by Albert Einstein, were discovered by scientists crunching data gathered in September 2015 from a ground-based observatory called LIGO, which has antennas positioned 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) apart in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana.

Gravitational wave research requires huge detectors spread of thousands or millions of miles because the ripples are observed at very low frequencies as they travel through the universe at the speed of light. Astronomers say the waves, which can be triggered by violent phenomena such as black hole mergers, reveal a new way of studying the cosmos impossible with conventional optical telescopes.

The back-to-back breakthroughs catapulted gravitational waves to the forefront of astronomical journals and space mission planning.

"Was it a big step forward? Absolutely, because up to this point there were two doubts," McNamara said in an interview this week with Spaceflight Now. "One doubt was gravitational waves don't exist, and then LIGO comes along and detects them.

"Then we launched LISA Pathfinder, and we demonstrated the hardware in space," he said. "So the two big questions — do they exist and can we detect them? — both were answered within three months of each other."

LISA Pathfinder was named for a follow-on mission dubbed the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, which was formally sel ected by ESA's science planning board June 20 to move into the next phase of mission planning after decades of starts and stops.

"With the astonishing success of LISA Pathfinder, we now know how to build a mission like LISA," said Vitale, a researcher at the University of Trento and the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Italy.

Launched from French Guiana aboard a Vega rocket, the hexagonal space probe is about the size of a small car. LISA Pathfinder reached an operating point at the L1 Lagrange point nearly a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth in January 2016, lurking near a gravitational balance point between in a direction toward the sun.

In March 2016, on the first day LISA Pathfinder was in full science mode, ground controllers confirmed the mission had already met its minimum success requirements.

Two gold-platinum test cubes launched inside the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft were released from their launch restraints, a complicated procedure involving needle-like appendages that carefully pulled away from the cubes — each 1.8 inches (46 millimeters) on a side and with a mass of 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) — to avoid disturbing them with electrostatic forces.

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/126578.jpg)
At the core of LISA Pathfinder are the two test masses: a pair of identical 46-millimeter gold–platinum cubes, floating freely, several millimeters from the walls of their housings. The cubes are separated by 38 centimeters and linked only by laser beams to measure their position continuously. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

The crux of the mission was to prove the test cubes could be kept in a constant state of nearly perfect free fall during LISA Pathfinder's mission.

Two sets of low-impulse thrusters essentially steered the spacecraft around the free-floating test masses suspended inside two vacuum enclosures placed 15 inches (38 centimeters) apart on the satellite.

Accelerometers aboard LISA Pathfinder precisely tracked its movements, and a control computer sent signals to the low-thrust rocket packs outside the probe to continuously correct to keep the test cubes from contacting the walls of their chambers.

A high-precision laser interferometer constantly measured the range between the two test cubes, and that device also exceeded requirements, measuring the relative motion of the test masses with a precision of a femtometer, or one quadrillionth of a meter.

LISA Pathfinder is 10,000 times more stable than any satellite flown on a previous science mission, officials said, demonstrating that it was possible for the test masses to remain virtually motionless with respect to each other.

ESA said the test masses had a relative acceleration of only ten billionths of a billionth of Earth's gravity, an achievement made possible by a tedious accounting of every component of the spacecraft that could influence the floating metallic cubes.

Many of the lessons learned from LISA Pathfinder were not in how to build a space-rated gravitational wave detector, but how to operate it, McNamara said. Even the switch-on of a transponder or star tracker added noise to the instrument beyond acceptable limits.

"This is such a sensitive instrument that it responds to anything changing whatseover," NcNamara said. "We've learned that, for LISA, we have to assume if you make any changes on-board its going to take you time to recover back into equilibirium. If you turn any unit on, you turn any heater on, or do anything on the spacecraft to put it in a slightly different orientation, it'll take you a week to get back to operational status."

Such precision is needed because gravitational waves have an amplitude of a few millionths of a millionth of a meter over a distance of a million kilometers (621,000 miles). Any larger movement of the test masses would mask the gravitational wave.

The LISA Pathfinder mission cost around $630 million, a figure that includes contributions from ESA, NASA and other institutions scattered across Europe.

LISA Pathfinder was conceived to prove a gravitational wave mission was technically feasible.

"People just didn't think it was possible," McNamara said. "That's why LISA Pathfinder came into being. It was just to see could we build an instrument which was quiet enough."

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/126579.jpg)
Artist's impression of a Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission concept spacecraft. Credit: AEI/Milde Marketing/Exozet

The concept for the LISA mission sel ected by ESA last month calls for three spacecraft similar to LISA Pathfinder to launch in 2034 into an orbit around the sun that trails the Earth.

The LISA spacecraft will fly in a triangular formation more than 1.5 million miles (2.5 million kilometers) apart, linked by lasers to track the exact distances between the nodes, which will each contain two free-floating test masses. Sensors will watch for tiny variations in the range between the craft as gravitational waves pass through the solar system.

"With gravitational waves, it's a completely new endeavor we're taking on," McNamara told Spaceflight Now. "This idea of flying three spacecraft separated by millions of kilometers, and you have to be able to measure the distance to a hundredth the size of an atom."

"We have exceeded not only the requirements set for LISA Pathfinder, but also the accuracy required for LISA at all frequencies: we are definitely ready to take the next step," said Karsten Danzmann, a LISA Pathfinder co-investigator, the lead proposer of the LISA mission, and director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Germany.

ESA expects the LISA mission to cost up to $1.2 billion (more than a billion euros), not including support from NASA.

Paul Hertz, director of NASA's astrophysics division, said Wednesday that the U.S. space agency wants to contribute technology and hardware to the LISA mission roughly equivalent to around 20 percent of the mission's total cost.

NASA and ESA originally planned a larger, more ambitious LISA mission, but NASA dropped out of the partnership in 2011 due to budget constraints. ESA pressed on with a scaled-back gravitational wave observatory, which received prioritization from the agency in 2013 ahead of the LISA concept's selection last month.

European officials want ESA to lead the LISA mission to avoid falling victim to another failed partnership, but NASA will still be a significant contributor. After discussions in the last few years for NASA to be a 10 percent partner, the U.S. stake in the LISA mission is now likely to be closer to 20 percent.

"We are talking about a more substantial contribution than a 10 percent share," Hertz said. "ESA has welcomed us as a very major partner."

NASA might develop lasers and telescopes for the LISA observatory, or the mission's charge management system. Another potential U.S. addition to the mission could be the micro-thrusters needed to deftly control each of the LISA spacecraft, which will be assembled in Europe.

LISA is third in ESA's "Cosmic Vision" line of large-class billion-euro space science missions.

A robotic spacecraft that will orbit Jupiter, and then circle Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede, is on schedule for launch aboard an Ariane 5 rocket in 2022, followed by liftoff of the Athena X-ray astronomy observatory in 2028.

Then it will be LISA's turn.

Before shutting down LISA Pathfinder, controllers fired its thrusters to nudge it out of its post at the L1 Lagrange point in April to head into a heliocentric orbit around the sun. The maneuver minimized the chance the spacecraft will return to Earth's vicinity.

LISA Pathfinder's science mission officially ended June 30, and engineers spent the final weeks practicing procedures to recapture the test masses inside their housings, which might be necessary if problems develop on the LISA mission. Other final tasks included monitoring the instrument's behavior when the spacecraft's thrusters were turned off, and tracking the test masses' response to a coronal mass ejection fr om the sun.

Scientists were eager to see how the spacecraft responded when it was zapped by ionizing energy fr om a solar eruption last week. In particular, mission officials wanted to know whether the instrument would still provide useful science data when the test masses were hit by charged particles. Reviews of that data are still ongoing, McNamara said.

The final commands uplinked to LISA Pathfinder turned off the craft's transponder and corrupted the memory files of the probe's primary and redundant computers by filling the processors with the names of scientists and engineers who worked on the mission.

"This is a celebration, and it's certainly not a sad moment," Vitale said moments before sending the order that silenced the spacecraft.

"LISA Pathfinder has done everything and more that we could have asked of it," McNamara said. "And it's allowed LISA to go ahead, so yes, we're sad that's going away and it's ending, but we're very happy LISA is taking off.

"It's another 17 years to go before that one launches, so we'll exercise our patience."

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ЦитироватьHow LISA Pathfinder Detected Dozens of 'Comet Crumbs'

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/220606.jpg) (https://www.youtube.com/user/NASAexplorer) NASA Goddard (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAY-SMFNfynqz1bdoaV8BeQ)

18 нояб. 2019 г.

LISA Pathfinder, a mission led by ESA (the European Space Agency) that included NASA contributions, successfully demonstrated technologies needed to build a future space-based gravitational wave observatory, a tool for detecting ripples in space-time produced by, among other things, merging black holes. A team of NASA scientists leveraged LISA Pathfinder's record-setting sensitivity for a different purpose much closer to home — mapping microscopic dust shed by comets and asteroids.

Most of these particles, known as micrometeroids, have masses measured in micrograms, similar to a small grain of sand. But at speeds reaching 40,000 mph (64,000 kph), even micrometeoroids pack a punch.

The NASA team, led by Ira Thorpe at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, detected 54 impacts during the mission, which lasted from 2015 to 2017. Modeling the strikes allowed the researchers to determine what kinds of objects shed the dust. The findings are broadly consistent with existing ideas of what generates micrometeroids found near Earth. The dusty culprits are mostly short-period comets  whose orbits are determined by Jupiter. Comets with longer periods, like Halley's comet, also contributed dust that LISA Pathfinder sensed.

The new measurements could help refine dust models used by researchers in a variety of studies, from understanding the physics of planet formation to estimating impact risks for current and future spacecraft.

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ЦитироватьESA одобрило постройку космической гравитационно-волновой обсерватории LISA 


Европейское космическое агентство (ESA) одобрило старт постройки трех аппаратов для будущей космической гравитационно-волновой обсерватории LISA. Она должна полететь в космос в 2035 году, сообщается на сайте агентства. 


LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) разрабатывается ESA совместно с NASA. Это космический лазерный интерферометр, который будет состоять из трех аппаратов, формирующих равносторонний треугольник со стороной в 1,5 миллиона километров. Принцип работы LISA аналогичен наземным обсерваториям LIGO и Virgo, однако она будет чувствительна к волнам гораздо меньшей частоты — рабочий диапазон составит от 0,1 миллигерца до 1 герца. Кроме того, треугольная схема вместо L-образной, которая используется на Земле, позволяет исследовать больше свойств гравитационных волн. В качестве пробных тел в LISA будут использоваться два двухкилограммовых кубика из золота и платины, эксперименты с ними проводились ранее на прототипе обсерватории LISA Pathfinder и оказались успешны. 


25 января 2024 года Комитет научной программы ESA завершил анализ проекта, признал, что он пригоден для постройки, и разрешил приступать к созданию научных приборов и космических аппаратов. До 2025 года будут выбраны подрядчики в Европе, а NASA предоставит лазеры, телескопы для приема лазерных лучей и источники ультрафиолетового света. 


Ожидается, что в космос три аппарата будут запущены при помощи тяжелой ракеты «Ариан-6» в 2035 году. Целями для LISA помимо событий слияний сверхмассивных черных дыр станут сверхкомпактные двойные системы в нашей галактике, содержащие нейтронные звезды и белые карлики, а также события слияний компактных объектов разных типов или разных масс.