B. Rais

TL;DR: The first results of the LISA Pathfinder in-flight experiment demonstrate that two free-falling reference test masses, such as those needed for a space-based gravitational wave observatory like LISA, can be put in free fall with a relative acceleration noise with a square root of the power spectral density.

TL;DR: LISA Pathfinder as discussed by the authors is a dedicated technology demonstrator for the joint ESA/NASA Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, which essentially mimics one arm of the LISA constellation by shrinking the 5 million kilometre armlength down to a few tens of centimetres, giving up the sensitivity to gravitational waves, but keeping the measurement technology.

TL;DR: In this article, a quantitative assessment of the performance of the upcoming LISA Pathfinder geodesic explorer mission is presented, based on the results of extensive ground testing and simulation campaigns using flight hardware, flight control and operations algorithms.

TL;DR: In this paper, a quantitative assessment of the performance of the upcoming LISA Pathfinder geodesic explorer mission is presented based on the results of extensive ground testing and simulation campaigns using flight hardware and flight control and operations algorithms.

TL;DR: The first complete integration and testing of the space-qualified hardware and are the first tests on an optical system level were performed at the Albert Einstein Institute, Hannover, Germany as discussed by the authors.