Showing papers by "Karsten Danzmann published in 1995"

LISA-Laser Interferometer Space Antenna for Gravitational Wave Measurements.

Abstract: LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) is designed to observe gravitational waves from violent events in the Universe in a frequency range from to lo-' Hz which is totally inaccessible to ground based experiments. It uses highly stabilised laser light (Nd:YAG, A = 1.064 p m ) in a Michelson-type interferometer arrangement. A cluster of six spacecraft with two at each vertex of an equilateral triangle is placed in an Earth-like orbit at a distance of 1 AU from the Sun, and 20' behind the Earth. Three subsets of four adjacent spacecraft each form an interferometer comprising a central station, consisting of two relatively adjacent spacecraft (200 km apart) , and two spacecraft placed at a. distance of 5x lo6 k m from the centre t o form arms which make an angle of GO\" with each other. Each spacecraft is equipped with a laser. A descoped LISA with only four spacecraft has undergone an ESA assessment s tudy in the M3 cycle, and the full 6-spacecra.ft LISA mission has now been selected as a. cornerstone in the ESA Horizon 2000-plus programme. The LISA Assessment Report is available as ESA document SC1(94)6, May 1994. Fig. 1. Configuration of a single LISA interferometer with four spacecraft. This earlier design of trapezoidal boxes was later changed into flat circular dislts, their axes normal to the interferometer plane, as indicated for a single ,spacecraft (with t op lid removed) on the righthand ,side.