Frank Steier

TL;DR: The eLISA mission as discussed by the authors is the first mission to study the entire universe with gravitational waves, and it will offer a wide view of a dynamic cosmos using gravitational waves as new and unique messengers to unveil The Gravitational Universe.

TL;DR: The LISA Pathfinder (LPF) is a science and technology demonstrator planned by the European Space Agency in view of the LISA mission as discussed by the authors, and the progress made in preparing its effective implementation in flight.

TL;DR: The current status of the LISA Pathfinder mission is described, a precursor mission aimed at demonstrating key technologies for future space-based gravitational wave detectors, like LISA, and performance measurements and analysis of these flight components lead to an expected performance of theLISA Pathfinder which is a significant improvement over the mission requirements.

TL;DR: The LISA Technology Package (LTP) is a technology demonstration mission in preparation for the LISA space-borne gravitational wave detector as discussed by the authors, which is a central part of the LTP is the optical metrology package (heterodyne interferometer with phasemeter) that measures the distance between two test masses with a noise level of 10 pm Hz−1/2 between 3 mHz and 30 mHz.

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.