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Here are up-to-date quick facts for LISA, a joint NASA–ESA mission to detect gravitational waves
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Frequency range:
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0.03 mHz–0.1 Hz
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Measurement concept:
| laser metrology between six fiducial masses on three spacecraft
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Mission |
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Orbits:
| independent heliocentric orbits, trailing Earth by 20 degrees
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Formation: | triangular with 5-million-km arms, passively maintained
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Spacecraft: | short cylinder, 2.9 m diam x 0.93 m high, 643 kg, 794 W
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Attitude/station-keeping: | drag-free control of spacecraft
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Thrusters: | three clusters of four, 30 µN maximum thrust
| | Technology demonstration: | LISA Pathfinder/ST-7 (ESA/NASA, launch 2011) will validate drag-free spacecraft operation
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Payload (on each spacecraft) |
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Lasers: | two 40 mW 1064-nm Nd:YAG oscillators + 2 W Yb fiber amplifiers
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Test masses: | two 2-kg Au–Pt cubical masses, 4.6 cm wide
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Telescopes: | two 40-cm diameter, used both to transmit and receive
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Science |
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Data volume: | approximately 60 GB
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Sources: | compact Galactic binaries, massive black hole binaries,
extreme–mass-ratio inspirals, stochastic backgrounds, bursts
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Source localization: | sub-degree to few degrees
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