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>Home/Research/GWAstrophysics/Instruments/LISA-SMART2 Laser Interferometry Space Antenna (LISA) LISA and the Gravitational Waves. Contact S. Aston

The LISA (Laser Interferometry Space Antenna) mission will open up a new window on the universe by enabling the observation of low frequency gravitational waves. It can be expected to have an impact as significant as the development of infra-red or X-ray astronomy. LISA is a joint ESA-NASA mission that involves having three spacecraft flying approximately 5 million kilometres apart in an equilateral triangle formation. Together, they act as a Michelson interferometer to measure the distortion of space caused by passing gravitational waves. The mission goal of LISA is to detect and observe gravitational waves from massive black holes and galactic binaries with periods in the range of a few seconds to a few hours (i.e. 10-4 to 10-1 Hz). Ground based interferometers, such as LIGO, find this range inaccessible due to the background of local gravitational noise arising from atmospheric effects and seismic activity. Ground-based interferometers are also physically limited in length to a few kilometres, restricting their coverage to events such as supernova core collapses and binary neutron star mergers. LISA Pathfinder (SMART-2) The entire LISA system is a device for measurement of changes in the lengths

of the interferometer arms by observation of the phase of laser light passed between the spacecraft. The Phase Measurement System can therefore be considered as one of the keys to achieving the required mission performance. A contract to assess the feasibility of producing a phase measurement system has been undertaken by the University of Birmingham in collaboration with industrial partners SEA. The objectives of the contract are focussed on understanding the Phase Measurement System for LISA by means of software tools, identifying the critical components needed to achieve the performance requirements, and justifying the technical solutions proposed by a combination of laboratory testing and preparations for in-orbit testing on SMART-2 (The Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology). SMART-2 will test the technology needed to develop the ambitious ESA mission LISA. The current status of the project is that the prototype SMART-2 Phase Measurement System has been delivered to the University of Glasgow, for further optical bench testing. The images available below show the fully populated phasemeter electronics board and some early results from testing.

Early Testing Results. SMART-2 PMS Electronics Board. Birmingham Gravitation Group, University of Birmingham 2004, all rights reserved

Phasemeter for LISA Pathfinder LISA is a program jointly funded by ESA and NASA. This is a mission to launch three satellites, working cooperatively as an interferometer with huge 5 Million Kilometre arms. LISA is made up of two sub missions, LISA Pathfinder and LISA. As

LISA is such an enormous and technologically difficult project LISA Pathfinder will launch in 2008 and will be the technology precursor to test whether such LISA will be possible.

Lisa Pathfinder Orbit

LISA Pathfinder - The Basics Making up LISA Pathfinder is an optical bench, containing all the components to make up a small interferometer, two chambers for test masses, thrusters to enable the test masses to "free fall" and a device known as the phasemeter. An interferometer works by splitting a ray of light between two paths, assuming both paths are equal when the two rays are brought back together they will be in phase and no interference pattern will be seen. When one of these paths changes length (for example by a gravitational wave) the light recombining is not in phase and an interference pattern is seen. The phasemeter takes this interference signal and uses it to calculate the distance the path length has changed. In the case of LISA pathfinder the path length will have changed by an amount equal to the movement of the test mass inside of its chamber.

Lisa Pathfinder Structure

The Phasemeter Recently the phasemeter has undergone its PDR (Preliminary Design Review), this means that the prototype is considered suitable and work can begin on the engineering model. This is then reviewed and if successful will be made into the flight model.

Phasemeter prototype electronics This is therefore a very important time for the phase meter, and much testing is needed. The prototype model is currently being modified to deal with more channels of data, and also is undergoing a change in the clock frequency.

Two pieces of software (working together) are needed to test the phasemeter, these are the Data AcQuisition Software (DAQS) and also the Data Processing Software (DPS). DAQS is the software that interfaces to the phasemeter via a standard known as military bus. It then takes phase and housekeeping data and processes these. Phase data is stored directly in files, and the DPS is used to read and analyse this. Housekeeping data is acquired every second. This is also stored in a file but will also be displayed on the screen in a series of text fields. This housekeeping data is extremely important, it displays temperatures, voltages, currents of the various circuits inside of the phasemeter. Temperature is an important consideration as it leads to a method of determining faulty parts of the phasemeter. Voltage and current data can be used for a similar purpose. Space missions are governed by many budgets, the housekeeping data is important as it means it is possible to view the power consumption of the phasemeter in all of its different modes and to make sure it does not exceed its budget. The data processing software loads data from the stored files, analyses this and produces graphs. The graphs are used to test the noise floor of the phasemeter. All analogue circuits contain noise, in standard home made circuits this is rarely a consideration. However, when considering LISA Pathfinder needs to measure a phase of as low as 10^-4 Rads/sqrt(Hz) noise becomes an important factor.

Noise floor of prototype phasemeter A seemingly This simple is part a of the phasemeter task! The

construction is the enclosure used to house the circuitry. not simple phasemeter enclosure has been designed in such a way so that the whole circuit is shielded by a metal box all around it. The main source of noise is the power supply, it is therefore housed in a sub-box in the bottom of the main enclosure. Another problem encountered is during launch. Every part of the spacecraft will undergo massive vibrations, if incorrectly designed the box could have natural resonances at frequencies that could damage the equipment. Under recent vibration tests the phasemeter enclosure has been found to resonate at a safe frequency, above the minimum recommended value.

Phasemeter enclosure

University of Birmingham E-mail: webmaster[at]star.sr.bham.ac.uk

Mission The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a cooperative mission with NASA, designed to detect 'ripples' in space-time. As predicted by Einsteins general theory of relativity, the ripples are created during events in which very massive objects undergo strong acceleration. Examples of such events are massive black holes swallowing neutron stars or the collision of two massive black holes. Such ripples are called gravitational waves and LISA will be the first mission to detect them from space.
LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) line drawing

LISAs three spacecraft will form an equilateral triangle with an arms length of about 5 million km. Each spacecraft houses two free-floating cubes made of a gold-platinum alloy inside the spacecraft, shielded from adverse effects of being in interplanetary space. The distance between the cubes in different spacecraft is monitored using highly accurate laser-based techniques. In this manner, it is possible to detect minute changes caused by passing gravitational waves. Gravitational waves are an integral part of Einstein's theory of general relativity. When a massive body is accelerated in the proper manner, it radiates gravitational waves. The difficulty is that, even for very massive bodies, such as black holes or neutron stars, gravitational waves are very weak and their effects are small. To detect gravitational waves, increasing the size of the detectors and going to a very quiet place is key. This is why scientists need LISA a space-based detector, 5 million km in size.

What's special? Physicists have come to two fundamental conclusions about gravitational waves:

The most predictable and most powerful sources of gravitational waves mostly emit their radiation at very low frequencies, below 10 miliHertz, or less than one oscillation every 100 seconds The presence of Earth's gravitational field and noise. both man-made and natural makes it difficult to observe the low frequency signals caused by gravitational waves. This makes detectors in space necessary, far away from Earth's gravitational disturbance and the noise on ground

One of the most certain sources of gravitational waves in our galaxy are binary stars, pairs of stars held together by their mutual gravitational pull. LISA's observations of these systems will be very interesting both for fundamental physics and for astrophysics. Its design is such that it can measure the amplitude, direction, and polarisation of gravitational waves simultaneously. Comparing measurements with theory will be a very powerful test of general relatvity. With the help of polarisation measurements, the inclination of the orbit of the binary system can be determined a crucial factor missing from many optical observations of these systems, necessary to infer the mass of stars in the binary pair. There are thousands of binary systems whose individual components can be detected in this manner, including some already identified from optical and X-ray observations. Candidate sources include X-ray binaries, neutron-star binaries, black-hole binaries, and helium cataclysmic variables. The most powerful sources of gravitational waves are the mergers of super-massive black holes in distant galaxies. When such events occur, their signal is about 10 million times stronger than the expected level of noise in a space-based detector. Observation of signals involving massive black holes will test general relativity and particularly black-hole theory to unprecedented accuracy. It will provide astronomers with information that cannot be obtained in another way. Massive blackholes were proposed in theory to explain the presence and behaviour of powerful quasars and active galactic nuclei, although there were no direct observations. Nowadays, the observational evidence is compelling. Data collected by the ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope shows that the galaxy M87 contains a central black hole, about 3000 million times more massive than the Sun. Andromeda, or M31, is also believed to contain a black hole of 30 million solar masses. Many more observations of black holes in nearby galaxies have been made and so astronomers expect a lot of signals for LISA to detect them. However, to detect signals of passing gravitational waves, all other sources of noise must be eliminated or damped down to an acceptable level. The spacecraft must be able to compensate for constant lowlevel buffeting by the solar wind and correct for minute orbital changes introduced by solar radiation pressure. This is one of the most challenging technical aspects.

Spacecraft Each of the three LISA spacecraft will carry two telescopes with associated lasers and optical systems. Pointing in directions separated by 60 degrees, the telescopes in each spacecraft will communicate with the other two spacecraft, located at the other two corners of an equilateral triangle. The task of aiming laser beams from one small spacecraft to another across 5 million kilometres of space is quite complex.

LISA payload

Additionally LISA has to deal with other forces that will alter the separation of the spacecrafts for example, solar radiation pressure. The spacecraft must sense the extraneous forces and counteract them with highly sensitive electric thrusters.

Central to each optical system, is a cube of side length 4cm, made of gold-platinum alloy. This 'test mass' will float freely in the weightless conditions of space. Acting as a reflector for the laser beams, the cube will provide the reference for measuring the distance between spacecraft.

Journey According to the current concept, the three identical LISA spacecraft will be launched together on a single Atlas V launcher. They will then independently reach their final orbits around the Sun using their propulsion modules that will be jettisoned prior to starting the scientific operations. The three spacecraft will be located at the vertices of a triangle, with an arms length of 5 million kilometres. The orbits will be similar to that of the Earth, but will trail our planet by approximately 50 million kilometres.

Schematic of LISA's Orbit

It will take one year for the three spacecraft to reach their final position and to start the actual mission. The LISA triangle will face the Sun, at an angle of 60 degrees to the plane of Earth's orbit, revolving with Earth around the Sun. These heliocentric orbits for the three spacecraft were chosen so that the triangular formation is maintained throughout the year, with the triangle appearing to rotate about the centre of the formation once per year. The relative movement of the three spacecraft will help to detect the direction of each source and to reveal the nature of the gravitational waves.
LISA's yearly orbit

The distance between the spacecraft determines the frequency range in which LISA can make observations; it has been carefully chosen to allow observation of most of the interesting sources of gravitational radiation, namely massive black holes and binary stars. History Early designs for laser-interferometer gravitational-wave detectors in space were first suggested in 1976. Three drag-free spacecraft were to be placed in space 'as far apart as practical' and their relative motion determined by a laser interferometer. This concept was worked out in greater detail and tentatively named Laser Antenna for Gravitational-radiation Observation in Space (LAGOS). In May 1993, LISA was proposed by a team of United States and European scientists as a joint ESA/ NASA mission. It was chosen by ESA instead for an Assessment Study as a possible ESA-only mission. The ESA-led study indicated that LISA was too expensive for a single agency to develop it. A six-spacecraft version of LISA was suggested in October 1993, as a candidate for a Cornerstone mission under ESAs former Horizon 2000 Plus programme. The mission was not approved due to high expected costs and size. To reduce mission costs, the science team studied an alternative configuration using only three spacecraft. Each spacecraft would replace a pair of spacecraft at the vertices of a triangle, with two instruments in each spacecraft. The three spacecraft would maintain all scientific capabilities of the six-spacecraft mission and would include redundancy such that no single failure would compromise the mission. In the case of the failure of one instrument, the mission would degrade into a two-arm interferometer, rather than the preferred three-arm mission, but would still provide much of the expected science return. Partnership LISA is a collaborative ESA-NASA project.

An initial agreement between ESA and NASA on roles and responsibilities for the Mission Formulation phase was finalized in August 2004. Under this plan, NASA will provide the three spacecraft, the launch vehicle, operations, the use of the Deep Space Network and elements of the payload. ESA will provide the complete payload and the three propulsion modules. The current agreement will be updated at a later stage to formalize ESA and NASA roles and responsibilities for the implementation phase. Last update: 21 August 2009