LISA Technology Package Core Assembly
Date: 29 January 2015
Satellite: LISA Pathfinder
Copyright: Airbus Defence and Space
The flight model of the LISA Technology Package (LTP) Core Assembly, pictured at the Airbus Defence and Space Friedrichshafen facility, in January 2015.
The LTP, provided by European institutes and industry, is one of two payloads, or test packages, that will be carried by the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft; the other package is the Disturbance Reduction System (DRS), provided by NASA.
LISA Pathfinder will use the LTP to test one of the key ideas behind gravitational wave detectors – that free particles follow geodesics in space-time.
On each end of the LTP is an Inertial Sensor Head (ISH) carrying a test mass, which will be free floating once the spacecraft is on orbit. The ISH is the cylinder to the back of the optical bench in this picture.
Each ISH is mounted to a Zerodur support structure, to which the optical bench (the structure with small rectangular protrusions) is also fixed.
An industrial team led by the prime contractor, Airbus DS - Stevenage, is building LISA Pathfinder. Airbus DS – Friedrichshafen is the payload architect for the LISA Technology Package (LTP). The optical bench is provided by the University of Glasgow; the inertial sensors by CGS (Milan); and the mounting hardware and side walls by Airbus DS - Stevenage.
