LISA Pathfinder Spacraft to Test Tech to Discover Gravitational Waves

The LISA Pathfinder spacecraft is on its way to space, having successfully launched from French Guinea. Onboard is a state-of-the-art Disturbance Reduction System (DRS), which is a thruster technology developed by NASA.

LISA Pathfinder is designed to test technologies that could one day detect gravitational waves. Gravitational waves, predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, are ripples in spacetime produced by any accelerating body. The waves are so weak, though, that Earth- or space-based observatories would only be able to directly detect such signals coming from massive astronomical systems.

The faintness of these waves makes it critical to keep the spacecraft stable enough to detect them. However, there are obstacles to staying absolutely still, even in seemingly empty space. For example, solar radiation pressure, which is force exerted by sunlight, pushes on the spacecraft delicately.

That's what the DRS is for. It uses micronewton thrusters to keep the spacecraft as still as possible and compensate for solar pressure. These thrusters electrically charge small liquid droplets and accelerate them through an electric field in order to generate thrust. LISA also has two cubed-shaped test masses that are designed to respond only to gravity.

The spacecraft's position will be continuously adjusted using its ultra-precise thrusters to stay centered about these test masses. Using lasers, the position of the freely floating test masses will be measured.

The new spacecraft will hopefully demonstrate the technologies needed to detect gravitational waves, even if it's not directly detecting them.

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