National Aeronautics and Space Administration

European Space Agency

2006 May 1

In this edition:
Managers Editorial Introduction to Extreme-Mass-Ratio Inspirals Status Report on LISA Pathnder A Year of Breakthroughs in Numerical Relativity Update on LIST Data-Analysis Activities LISA Formulation Studies at EADS Astrium LISA Micronewton Thruster Technology

Issue 2006-1

the LISA newsletter

the LISA newsletter 2006 May 1

Dear Readers,
Welcome to the first issue of the LISA Newsletter. This newsletter will keep you updated with the programmatic status and the scientific and technical progress of the LISA project. As the ESA and NASA LISA project managers, we would like to take this opportunity to provide you with some background, progress, and future plans in the programmatic arena. As you know, the LISA project enjoys a strong partnership between NASA and ESA. In August 2004, an agreement was signed between the two agencies that defines the roles and responsibilities of each partner. Since then, the LISA personnel at both agencies have worked together very closely as a single virtual team to develop the required technologies and to develop the baseline mission architecture. LISA received a strong vote of confidence from an independent review team in December 2005, after formal technology assessments of LISA and Constellation-X, two proposed flagship missions of NASAs Beyond Einstein program. That team concluded that LISAs technology requirements are well understood and the plans for completing development of the critical technologies are sound. LISAs launch will be preceded several years by the LISA Pathfinder (LPF), a mission that will demonstrate some of LISAs key technologies in space. LPF is managed by ESA, and will carry both ESA and NASA test packagesthe LISA Test Package (LTP) and the Disturbance Reduction System (ST7-DRS), respectively. You can read more about this mission in the article by Stefano Vitale in this newsletter. LPF is well into its implementation phase and has just completed its Preliminary Design Review. The mission is fully funded by each agency for launch in the fourth quarter of 2009, and is moving ahead right on schedule. LISA entered the formulation phase in January 2005. During this phase, trade studies are being completed that will lead to selection of a baseline mission architecture that meets the LISA science requirements in the most cost-effective way. The Mission Architecture Review was completed in October 2005, and the Mid-Term Review will take place soon, in April 2006. With the baseline architecture in hand, we will proceed with defining the lower-level requirements. ESA has engaged in a two-year industrial contract with Astrium GmbH to support the mission formulation activity (see the article by Ulrich Johann). LISA has survived various funding crises over the past few years, on both sides of the Atlantic. On the U.S. side, the latest Whats Happening...
The Sixth International LISA Symposium will be held June 1923, 2006, at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Topics include: fundamental gravitational physics and astrophysics of LISA, gravitationalwave data analysis, LISA instrumentation, LISA Pathnder, and ground-based gravitational-wave antennas. A tutorial session on LISA will also be given the rst morning of the Symposium. More information and registration forms can be found at the symposium web site, lisa6.gsfc.nasa.gov. The deadline for registration is May 1, 2006.

language in the Presidents proposed budget for fiscal years 2007 through 2011 does not imply a definitive launch date for LISA. However, the budgetary guidelines distributed by NASA Headquarters indicate that a wedge will be available starting in FY2009 that will allow at least one facility-class mission in the Beyond Einstein Program to go forward. Options for that mission include LISA, Constellation-X and the Joint Dark-Energy Mission. LISAs advanced design status and the consolidated cooperation framework between ESA and NASA combine to make LISA a strong candidate for selection. On the ESA side, while final commitment to LISAs implementation will be influenced strongly by the success of LPF, work will be underway well before LPFs launch to define the LISA mission and prepare the invitation to tender for the implementation phase. With NASAs selection in FY2009 and ESAs final commitment, we expect LISA to enter the implementation phase in 2011, and to launch in the 20152016 timeframe. From now through the final NASA selection in 20082009, because of the limited funds available, priority will be given to activities that make the LISA mission as competitive as possible. These activities cover three principal areas: science capability, technology maturity, and total mission cost. In particular, we will focus on achieving the following objectives: 1. Science capability Maintain substantial support from the community of scientists who may be interested in the LISA data, beyond the core fundamental physics community. Demonstrate that LISAs science requirements are well understood. Demonstrate that the science proposed by LISA can be accomplished. Technology maturity Demonstrate that the required technologies are at their highest possible levels of readiness at the time of decision. Total mission cost Demonstrate the highest possible credibility for the total cost estimate at the time of the decision. Understand the architecture in sufficient detail that a credible hardware-acquisition-type (Price-H) estimation model can be developed. Prove that the selected mission design offers the best science return for the cost. Ensure to the maximum extent possible that the mission design is scalable, with clear understanding of the impact on science return of any cost reductions.

2.

3.

We hope that this newsletter will be a good vehicle for providing you with vital insight into the LISA project activities. We count on your support and encouragement to make LISA a successful mission that will open a new window to the universe. Sincerely,

Mansoor Ahmed
NASA LISA Project Manager

Alberto Gianolio
ESA LISA Project Manager

the LISA newsletter 2006 May 1

Introduction to Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspirals: supermassive black holes under the microscope
How do you observe an object made entirely of gravity? The cleanest and simplest approach is to drop a particle into that gravitational field and see how it moves. Extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs) the capture of a stellar-mass body by a supermassive black hole provide just such a probe. In recent years, astrophysicists have come to the conclusion that supermassive black holes are ubiquitous in the cores of galaxies. As galaxies merge and grow, so too do their resident black holes. A given supermassive black hole may typically have gone through several mergers, and will also have grown by feeding off the gas and stars of its host galaxy. Each of these properties will leave its imprint on the mass and spin of the black hole; accreting gas from a thin disk tends to spin the black hole up to extreme values, while capturing stars from an isotropic swarm tends to decrease spin, and a merger of two comparable-mass black holes tends to produce a moderately-spinning black hole. In turn, the spin of the black hole causes rapid precession in the orbits of objects deep in the holes gravitational well. Compact stellar remnants, such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and stellar-mass black holes, are expected to remain intact even as they are swallowed whole by the supermassive black hole, making them ideal test particle probes of the spacetime structure just outside the holes event horizon. This is the regime that LISA is designed to explore. The value of EMRIs comes from the long duration and intricate complexity of the orbits, and of the gravitational waveforms they produce. LISAs peak sensitivity at 3mHz is ideally tuned to detect the final orbits of objects falling into ~ 106 M supermassive black holes. The last year of inspiral will comprise about 3 mHz 1yr ~ 105 orbits. These orbits will typically be both eccentric and inclined from the holes equator, producing waves with a rich structure: the effects of frame dragging due to the spin of the hole will be clearly observable. With 105 wave cycles to work with, it should be possible to measure the parameters of the orbit and of the central black hole to fractional-percent precision. Enough such detections would give us accurate demographics of the distribution and characteristics of supermassive black holes in the Universe. Furthermore, since each inspiraling orbit is highly sensitive to the structure of spacetime that it traverses, individual detections ought to provide stringent tests of the predictions of general relativity. That is, it should be possible to measure whether the supermassive black hole is in fact a black hole as predicted by relativity, or instead some other exotic object with unexpected properties. Quantifying this expectation is a subject of current research. So what are the prospects for detecting such signals? From empirical relationships between galactic luminosity, velocity dispersion, and central black hole masses measured in nearby galaxies, we can estimate the space density of supermassive black holes: about 7106 black holes of ~106 M per cubic gigaparsec. Numerical simulations of the swarm at the center of our own Galaxy suggest that its 3106 M black hole captures a white dwarf, neutron star, or stellar-mass black hole every million years or so. This gives a capture rate density of several per year per cubic gigaparsec give or take an order of magnitude. On the other side of the equation, LISAs ability to detect these objects depends critically on the signal analysis method one adopts. The gravitational waveforms long duration and complexity are cru-

Teviet Creighton
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
cial in our ability to separate their weak signal from the instrumental noise, but these same features rule out simple matched filter searches: such an optimal search would occupy all the worlds computers for longer than the lifetime of the Universe. Instead, various other schemes have been proposed that would be able to see nearly as far as optimal filtering (within a factor of a few), while still being computationally tractable. The final technique and its performance are a subject of ongoing research, but we expect to achieve an astronomical reach of several gigaparsecs (luminosity distance) for black-hole captures, about a gigaparsec for neutron stars, and at least half a gigaparsec for white dwarfs. Over a 5-year mission LISA is therefore expected to see anywhere from tens to thousands of EMRI events. Direct observations of black holes have always proven a singular challenge to astronomy. But under the onslaught of so many high-precision probes, their properties will soon come to light.

Final hour of particles falling into a 106 M black hole having 50% (blue solid line) or 55% (red dotted line) of maximum spin. The vertical axis is the projection of the particle position onto an axis in the hole's equatorial plane. Particle orbits have eccentricity 0.5 and no inclination. Shaded region represents the size of the hole's horizon. Even over a span of just one hour (a dozen orbits), a 5% change in spin produces clear differences in the orbits.

the LISA newsletter 2006 May 1

A status report on LISA Pathfinder: leading the way toward LISA technology
Like all interferometric detectors of gravitational waves, LISA is based on the possibility of realizing, to some accuracy, a Transverse and Traceless (TT) space-time coordinate frame. In this coordinate frame, despite the presence of a weak space-time curvature associated with gravitational waves, a free particle initially at rest remains at rest, i.e., its space coordinates do not change with time; and coordinate time coincides with the proper time of clocks sitting on such resting particles. Even though such free particles remain still, the proper distances among them change with time because the metric tensor itself changes with time, and this variation can be detected with laser interferometry. The accuracy with which the reference particles (a.k.a. proof masses) can be known to be still determines the strength and wavelength of the gravitational waves we can detect and measure. Figure 1 shows the desired accuracy (spectral amplitude of displacement) as a function of gravitational-wave measurement frequency for LISA (10 pm1/Hz between a few mHz and a few tens of mHz) and for the ground-based gravitationalwave detector LIGO (sub-am2/Hz between a few hundred and ten thousand Hz). Electromagnetic forces and locallygenerated gravity can drive the proof masses out of their geodesics, mimicking a change in the metric tensor. This effect limits the accuracy of the definition of reference frames at the lowest frequency, because the conversion from acceleration to displacement spectral amplitude involves the inverse square of the frequency. The comparison between LISA and LIGO is qualitatively reversed when it comes to requirements for the maximum tolerable acceleration noise (see Figure 1). At the low frequencies of interest for LISA (0.1 to a few mHz), the maximum tolerable parasitic acceleration corresponds to a spectral amplitude of about 310-15ms-2/Hz, whereas LIGOs most severe requirement for acceleration noise spectral amplitude (between a few tens
1 2

Stefano Vitale
University of Trento, Italy

and a hundred Hz) is about ten times to bring about any change in design of the larger. Figure 2 also shows the acceleration proof masses or their motion sensors. noise requirements for GOCE, ESAs One further relaxation for LPF is that this Earth geodesy mission based on gravita- level of acceleration noise is required only tional gradient mapping. Although GOCE above 1 mHz (as opposed to down to 0.1 requires a high level of thermal dynamic mHz). This will accommodate some extra isolation for its proof masses, its require- disturbances anticipated to result from the ment for acceleration noise is two-to-three nature of the test setup unique to LPF orders less demanding than for LISA over which will not exist for LISA. Details of a similar measurement band, a level which the LPF hardware can be found elsewhere for certain types of disturbances has been [2]. Following is a summary of the priachieved already on the ground [1]. mary features of the ESA-provided core The demonstration of the possibility of instrument, known as the LISA Technolachieving such a high level of accuracy in ogy Package or LTP (Figure 3). the definition of the TT frame has been As for LISA, the proof masses are 46-mm included in ESAs plans with the LISA Au-Pt cubes surrounded by Au-coated PathFinder mission, to which NASA will electrodes (see Figure 4). Electrodes are contribute. The principle of the test on used both for capacitive sensing of proofLISA Pathfinder is to provide the mini- mass position and orientation ( 2 nm/ mum setup needed to define a TT frame Hz resolution) and for applying forces along one axis, mimicking the key aspects needed to keep it in equilibrium. Relatively of one of the LISA arms: two free-falling large gaps (4 mm) separate the proof proof masses and a high-precision masses from the closest bodies in order to interferometer-based metrology system to suppress electromagnetic interactions. measure their relative motion to an accuracy on the order of 10 pm/Hz. The specific goal of the LPF mission is to demonstrate that the relative acceleration between two proof masses is less than 310-14ms2/Hz up to a frequency of about 9 mHz, above which the interferometer measurement error of 10 pm/ Figure 1. Positional accuracy desired in the denition of Hz begins to domi- coordinate frames for LIGO and LISA. nate the signal. By comparison, LISA requires a relative acceleration between the two proof masses in each arm of 23 10-15ms-2/Hz, about a factor of 7 times more demanding. This slight relaxation permits a less demanding set of requirements for the LPF spacecraft and onboard systems, but it is not intended

pm = picometer (10-12m); am = attometer (10-18m)

Figure 2. Maximum tolerable level of parasitic force noise for LISA, LIGO, and GOCE.

A laser interferometer reads out the relative displacement between the two LTP proof masses along the line joining their centers of mass (see Figure 5). In addition, one more interferometer provides an independent readout of the motion of one of the proof masses relative to the spacecraft. Progress in the design of LISA has recently clarified that inference of the relative motion of its two widely separated proof masses requires measurement of the motion of each proof mass relative to its own spacecraft plus the measurement of the relative motion between the spacecraft. This extra interferometer on board LISA Pathfinder thus provides demonstration of another critical part of the LISA instrument. As on LISA, the spacecraft will follow one of the proof masses by using micronewton thrusters. Accurate centering of the spacecraft around the proof mass is achieved with a control loop driven by the motion sensor for one of the proof masses motion sensor (electrostatic or interferometric sensor, depending on the specific experiment). Since the single LPF spacecraft cannot follow two proof masses at the same time along the same

keep the proof mass neutral to within the required tolerance (<107 e). Locking and release mechanisms to hold the proof mass during launch and to inject it into the final geodesic. Heterodyne interferometer implemented on a hydroxy-catalysisbonded monolithic Zerodur optical bench. The final aim of LISA Pathfinder is to deliver a quantitative noise model for LISA. Thus, besides measuring the relative acceleration noise, the experiments include a series of dedicated subexperiments that allow the independent evaluation of single contributions to the overall acceleration noise. The experiment should provide us with upper limits on unmodeled noise sources at a level very close to the LISA requirement of 310-15ms-2/Hz for frequencies above about 0.3 mHz. LISA Pathfinder is now in its implementation phase. It just passed its Figure 4. LISA/LISA Pathnder 2 kg Au-Pt proof mass (left) and the electrode housing Preliminary Design Review, which with electrodes for sensing position and orientation and for actuation. The proof mass marks the freezing of its main dets into the central cavity of the electrode housing with 3- to 4-mm empty gaps sur- sign features, and a large team of inrounding it. The prototypes shown are engineering models of the ight hardware. dustries and institutions are working toward the launch, currently planned for October 2009. The entire experiment will last 6 months, but the preliminary data that will clear the way for LISA are expected to be in hand within the first month or so after reaching the orbit around L1. At that point, most of the technology risk for LISA will have been reduced to the level of off-the-shelf technology, and LISA will be ready to go. References 1 L. Carbone, et al., Class. Quantum Grav. 22, S509S519 (2005). Figure 5. Engineering model of the monolithic Zerodur optical bench for the LTP. Left: the 2 Anza S. et al., Class. Quantum optical bench and the supporting structure, with mirrors replacing the proof masses. Right: the assembly during vibration test with GRS dummies. Grav. 22, S125S138 (2005).

direction, the second proof mass must be forced to follow the first one by an electrostatic force, an aspect of the setup which limits the acceleration noise performance at the lowest frequencies. The technology tested on LISA Pathfinder will be nominally transferred to LISA with no change of design. Specifically, this includes the following: Proof masses and electrostatic readout and actuation, a set referred to as the Gravitational Reference Sensor (GRS). High-vacuum enclosure for the GRS. High-precision balance masses to cancel the static gravitational field and gradient. UV-light charge management system to

the LISA newsletter 2006 May 1

Figure 3. Current design of the LTP. Visible are the high-vacuum enclosures that surround the proof masses, the optical bench with monolithically mounted optical components, and the Zerodur structure. The protruding features are the struts that connect the instrument to the spacecraft.

the LISA newsletter 2006 May 1

Simulating black-hole mergers: a year of breakthroughs in numerical relativity

From the point of view of fundamental physics, the direct detection of gravitational waves will be an amazing achievement. However, when it comes to gravitational-wave detectors such as LISA, the scientific community expects to realize much more than just the detection of gravitational waves. One such achievement comes in the form of the detailed examination of some of the most exotic objects in the universeblack holes. From extreme-mass-ratio scenarios to comparable-mass supermassive inspirals, black holes figure to play prominently in the scientific achievement of gravitationalwave detectors.

Mark Miller
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

plunge and merger phases of the inspiral. The past year has seen several breakthroughs in numerical simulations of binary black-hole inspirals. The first success, reported by Frans Pretorius [PRL 95, 121101 (2005)], was achieved with a code based on harmonic coordinates first suggested by David Garfinkle of Oakland, and implementing modifications suggested by Carsten Gundlach (Southampton). The code uses second-order finite-difference methods and employs adaptive A necessary ingredient required to trans- mesh refinement along with form the gravitational-wave detection dynamical horizon excision. capabilities of LISA into a tool for imag- Starting from approximately Figure 1. Pretorius: the real part of 4, evaluated ing black holes is the calculation, within circular initial orbits, Pretorius on the orbital plane of the binary black hole inspithe mathematical framework of general has been able to track the binary ral evolution, shortly after merger. relativity, of the gravitational-wave signa- through several orbits, to the tures of astrophysical events involving merger and the beginning of ringdown formulation of the Einstein field equations, along with puncture initial data black holes. Calculation of the waveform (see Figure 1). from an equal-mass coalescing black-hole Numerical-relativity groups based at the (first proposed by Steve Brandt and Bernd binary remains an unsolved problem. Its University of Texas at Brownsville (Manu- Bruegmann). While the UTB group emresolution will probably require the syner- ela Campanelli, Carlos Lousto, and Yosef ploys fourth-order finite-difference methgistic efforts of post-Newtonian solutions Zlochower, working with Florida Atlantic ods to obtain higher accuracy, the God(during the quasi-equilibrium, adiabatic Universitys Pedro Marronetti) and at dard group uses a hybrid second/fourthregime of the inspiral), perturbation tech- Goddard Space Flight Center (John Baker, order discretization, along with adaptive niques (during the ringdown of the final Joan Centrella, Dae-Il Choi, Michael Kop- mesh refinement, to obtain higher accumerged object), and numerical relativity to pitz, and James van Meter) used the BSSN racy. Interestingly, neither group excises model the highly dynamic, nonlinear (Baumgarte-Shapiro-Shibata-Nakamura) inside the black-hole horizons, yet both are able to track the binary through multiple orbits in their numerical simulations. The UTB results [PRL 96, 111101 (2006), see Figure 2] track the binary through the last orbit before plunge, demonstrating fourth-order convergence of the extracted waveform. Perhaps the most impressive demonstration of waveform calculations to date are reported by the Goddard group [PRD 73, 104002 (2006), see Figure 3]. They start from circular-orbit initial data with a variety of initial separations, ranging from the Innermost Stable Circular Orbit (ISCO, roughly 6 times the ADM mass of the system) to 50% farther than the ISCO. The resulting plunge waveforms are compared, modulo the overall phase, with good agreement among all simulations. While the above progress is an exciting Figure 2. UTB: the real part of r4 at various times during the binary black hole step forward for numerical relativity, there simulation (sequenced from top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right). are still many challenges to be faced.

These challenges include obtaining astrophysically relevant initial data for binary simulations, as well as ensuring that the simulations themselves are accurate enough that signal searches and parameter estimations based on waveforms extracted from these simulations are dominated by detector noise, rather than by analysis errors (e.g., discretization errors) inherent to the numerical relativity simulations. A casual perusal of the results described above indicates that this challenge remains to be met; at present, relatively large phase errors exist over the entire wave trains extracted from the multiple-orbit simulations. The demands on numerical relativity may well be extremely severe for LISA, which is expected to detect supermassiveblack-hole mergers anywhere in the Universe with high signal-to-noise: our theoretical models must be of similarly high fidelity in order for LISA to realize its scientific potential.

the LISA newsletter 2006 May 1

Figure 3. GSFC: paths of binary black hole numerical evolutions starting from different initial separations; the track of only one of the black holes is shown from each simulation. An overall phase factor is applied to the tracks, chosen so that the phases match at the time of merger (indicated by an asterisk in the plot).

LIST Working Group 1B (data analysis): update on activities and call for input
At the LISA International Science Team (LIST) meeting of December 2005, in Pasadena, the Working Group on Data Analysis (LIST-WG1B) established a taskforce to organize several rounds of mock data challenges, with the dual purpose of fostering the development of LISA dataanalysis tools and capabilities, and of demonstrating the technical readiness already achieved by the gravitational-wave community in distilling a rich science payoff from the LISA data output. The LISA Mock Data Challenges were proposed and discussed at meetings organized by the U.S. and European LISA Projects that were attended by a broad cross section of the international gravitational-wave community. These challenges are meant to be blind tests, but not really a contest. The Mock LISA Data Challenge (MLDC) Taskforce has been working since the beginning of this year to formulate challenge problems of maximum efficacy, to establish criteria for the evaluation of the analyses, to develop standard models of the LISA mission (orbit, noises) and of the LISA sources (waveforms, parameterization), to provide computing tools such as LISA response simulators, source waveform generators, and a Mock Data Challenge file format, and more generally to provide any technical support necessary to the challengers, including moderated dis7 cussion forums and a software repository. The activities of the MLDC Taskforce can be tracked on the WG1B website, (www.tapir.caltech.edu/dokuwiki/listwg1b :home), where you will find the contact list, working materials, and teleconference minutes. The taskforce welcomes contributions and feedback from any interested parties. Questions and comments can be sent to the MLDC co-chairs, Michele Vallisneri (vallis@caltech.edu) and Alberto Vecchio (av@star.sr.bham.ac.uk). Meetings: the LIST working groups will be meeting immediately prior to the LISA Symposium (lisa6.gsfc.nasa.gov) on Saturday, June 17 in Greenbelt, Maryland. The main topic for the WG1B meeting will be the materials produced by the MLDC taskforce. The goal of the meeting is to inform interested parties and to gather feedback. The recommendations of the MLDC taskforce will be presented for adoption at the executive session on the LIST on Sunday, June 18. The first set of challenge datasets will be released during the 6th LISA Symposium (June 1923, 2006, at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland). There will be an afternoon session at the symposium where the challenges will be described and tutorials will be given on the use of the datasets and the MLDC tools. The challenges will involve the distribution of several datasets, encoded in a simple standard format, and containing combinations of realistic simulated LISA noise with the signals from one or more LISA gravitational-wave sources of parameters unknown to the challenge participants. It is envisaged that the results of the first MLDCs will be presented to the broad community and discussed in a dedicated session at the 11th Gravitational-Wave Data Analysis Workshop (December 18 to 21, 2006, at the Albert Einstein Institute, in Golm, Germany; see the website gwdaw11.aei.mpg.de). The second and third sets of challenge datasets, embodying more ambitious data-analysis problems, will be released in December 2006, with target timeframes for the completion of the analyses in June and December 2007. Informal meetings and/or teleconferences will be scheduled in consultation with the participants to discuss progress, issues and preliminary/final results. The attendance to the LISA Symposium and to the GWDAWs is therefore not required to participate in the challenges, since all challenge materials and results will be available online.

Neil Cornish & Bernard Schutz

LIST WG1B co-chairs

the LISA newsletter 2006 May 1

Status and progress of ESAs LISA mission formulation study at EADS Astrium
The European Space Agency, operating in close coordination with NASAs GSFC and JPL, awarded a study contract in January 2005 to EADS Astrium, Germany. The objective is to support the Agency as industrial partner in all aspects of formulating a consolidated and optimized LISA mission architecture and design. The study was structured in two phases. Phase two is well advanced now and will nominally be completed in January 2007. The study has already matured the LISA mission development by proposing a significantly evolved payload architecture incorporating advanced conceptual ideas into a consolidated baseline design. At the same time, novel payload architectural concept alternatives have been proposed, with the potential for further mission optimization. Despite the need for focused technology developments, particularly in some payload areas, the robustness of the LISA mission concept has been reconfirmed, and no critical item has been encountered. Astrium began with the results of their previous study performed in 2000 and reconsidered theoretical and technical work accomplished since then by various European and American institutions, as well as progress achieved by the LISA Pathfinder mission. Astrium is also industrial partner to ESA and the national European space agencies for the development of the LISA Pathfinder mission and its European payload (LTP). The mission formulation phase covers all aspects of the LISA mission. It is organized to derive specifications for all mission elements in a flow-down and apportionment from top-level science requirements, taking into account operations, constellation and control, payload engineering, spacecraft engineering, and mission infrastructure. This comprehensive approach is necessary in order to optimize the delicate interdependencies of the technical and performance requirements imposed at each level on the various mission elements. Results are used to forge a development program for critical enabling technologies and assemblies. Other important tasks include the optimization of the mission design in terms of risk reduction, technical maturity, budget, interfaces, and schedule impact. Despite the necessary top-down approach, the investigations are payload-oriented, this being the element that drives science performance and which is also is the major focus of the European contribution. LISA is a triangular constellation of three spacecraft, separated by 5 million km from each other and mutually linked by laser interferometry in an active transponder scheme, trailing Earth in its heliocentric orbit by about 20. The triangular plane is revolving over the year, while its normal remains tilted at 30 to the plane of the ecliptic, and pointed towards the sun. The laser interferometers along each of the three arms are referenced to free-falling proof masses (cubes) inside the payload. They are kept in free fall along the associated interferometer axis and within the desired measurement bandwidth of 310-510-1 Hz by a drag-free control system, which minimizes acceleration distortions from the space environment and from the surrounding spacecraft itself. Passing gravitational waves cause picometer-level differential phase modulation in the laser interferometers that will be detected through signal processing of all of the laser heterodyne phase-meter signals, derived from superposition of local and received laser signals for all interferometers. Detection sensitivity is constrained in the low-frequency band by proof-mass acceleration noise (e.g. thermoelastics, electrostatics), and in the medium and high ranges by laser photon statistics (laser power). The LISA mission duration is 6.5 years (including 1.5 years for orbit transfer and commissioning) with a goal of 10 years. The three spacecraft are injected into their individual heliocentric orbits via dedicated, jettisonable, chemical propulsion modules, an option enabled by use of a Delta 4 or Atlas 5 launch vehicle. The primary engineering challenge is, of course, to minimize technically-induced accelerations and laser phase fluctuations within the measurement band. This translates into demanding requirements on thermal and thermoelastic stability in critical payload elements, sensing of proofmass relative position and attitude, thruster noise handling and compensation for local gravity. Decisive for LISAs success is the scheme for canceling inherent laser phase noise, since it is orders of magnitude larger than the expected gravitational-wave signal. This is accomplished by locking the instantaneous laser phase in each interfer-

Ulrich Johann
EADS Astrium, Germany
ometer arm to the phase of the laser measured at the start of the round trip (about 32 seconds earlier, or multiples thereof), and by subsequent processing of the signals from all arms, either onboard or on the ground. Classical optical reference cavities might be used to help suppress high-frequency laser phase noise. This arm-locking scheme is undergoing detailed modeling, to optimize the signalprocessing approached used for the data links and the laser assembly design. A further technical challenge is caused by the fact that the triangular constellation breathes by about 601 within its plane over each yearly period, due to orbital distortions. The effect requires slow relative pointing changes and also causes Doppler shifts of about 20 MHz along the lines of sight, both features exhibiting sinusoidal patterns. The finite round-trip times and directional change of the plane vector relative to an inertial frame cause a slowly, sinusoidally varying offset (pointahead) angle of 6 rad between transmit and received beams, perpendicular to the constellation plane. This value already exceeds the diffraction-limited beam divergence of about 2.5 rad. All of these effects combine to require designs for sensing and actuating common-mode and differential line-of-sight directions, respectively, as well as a sophisticated laser frequency map and mixing scheme. The study has also uncovered a large class of geometrical projection effects in the near and far fields of the laser beams (at local or remote spacecraft, respectively) that cause crosstalk between pointing jitter and piston/phase jitter that exceeds the measurement tolerance. Locally, the backwards-projected line of sight direction that represents the measurement reference (not the laser beam itself) has to pass with tight tolerances through the associated proof-mass center of mass. That holds for both the transmitted and received beams. The far-field effect was formerly known as the flat-spot problem. More precisely, the laser beams phase centers have to coincide with the measurement reference point accurately enough to keep the crosstalk between the pointing jitter and the piston/phase jitter within acceptable limits. The tight tolerances for the beam alignment and verification are extremely challenging. Astrium proposes to utilize the very accurate in-

stantaneous pointing knowledge provided by the differential wavefront sensing of the heterodyne phase-meters (200 prad) to correct the phase signal accordingly after in-orbit calibration of the crosstalk function. Similar crosstalk effects are encountered in the laser beam to proof-mass interaction (acting as active mirror), but can be mitigated again by precise knowledge of proof-mass attitude and position relative to the laser-beam fiducial points. This information is also provided by a dedicated differential wavefront-sensing readout. Interestingly, the problem is already present in LISA Pathfinder, and it is solved here in the same way. As part of the payload, a dedicated optical assembly for each constellation arm is featuring, in rigid interconnection, a gravitational reference, an optical bench and a telescope, operated as a monostatic transmit/receive antenna. The laser-link budget requires a transmitted signal in excess of 1W in order to have a received signal with a residual power of the order of 100 pW. Hence, stray light of the transmitter is a challenge even for a heterodyne detection scheme and much more for the non-coherent CCD acquisition. Introducing a slight frequency offset between transmit and local-oscillator laser beams (laser swap) allows discrimination between the received beam and transmitter stray light in the heterodyne signal, and, in combination with a laser switching scheme during acquisition and polarization routing, a mitigation of the detrimental effects. A detailed modeling to validate the robustness of the scheme is presently being developed. Astrium has evolved the payload architecture considerably during the first part of the study in order to cope with these challenges and to achieve a robust architecture of the payload with optimized mass and power budgets and to define sound assembly and verification procedures. In the present baseline architecture, each spacecraft carries a Y-shaped arrangement, comprising two optical payload assemblies serving the two adjacent interferometer arms, respectively. The two optical assemblies can be actuated as a whole with regard to their relative pointing within the plane of the constellation in order to cope with the breathing angle. The two adjacent laser assemblies are phase correlated via a backside fiber link and also serve mutually on the other optical bench as local oscillators for the heterodyne phase

detection of the picowatt incoming beams. Payload electronics and laser assemblies are distributed among the spacecraft compartments. A 40-cm-aperture, baffled Cassegrain telescope is isostatically mounted to a LISA payload optical assembly conguration. titanium frame that carries on its back side an optical and costs. One of these advanced conbench made of ultra-low-expansion cepts is characterized by a single optical (ULE) glass and a gravitational reference bench and active gravitational reference, sensor. All elements are thermally isolated serving both adjacent interferometer arms in order to secure thermoelastic stability via two rigidly connected off-axis teleand thermalization. The optical bench scopes. The breathing-angle compensaoriented perpendicular to the telescope tion is accomplished by in-field-of-view axis carries the transmitter and receiver pointing actuation of the lasers lines of interferometer optics in polarization mul- sight. Therefore a dedicated actuation tiplexing, the transmitter laser fiber mechanism located on the optical bench is launcher, the acquisition sensor, the point- employed in addition to the required ahead actuator, the differential wavefront point-ahead actuators. Technical chalsensing phase-meter head, and a local laser lenges here include pointing jitter of the phase correlator. Differently from all pre- actuation mechanism and monitoring and vious architectures, it carries also a dedi- calibration of the laser phase walk that cated laser interferometer for precision occurs while changing the optical path sensing of proof-mass axial position and inside the optical assembly during repointing. Presumably, an internal laser lateral attitude. In summary, new payload features pro- metrology truss derived from the existing posed and introduced in the study include: interferometry is required to accomplish Two-step interferometry (strap-down this task. The scheme is exploiting the architecture) decoupling technically and two-step interferometry and employs a functionally the gravitational-reference dedicated full laser interferometer optical optical readout (ORO) and the inter- readout of critical degrees of freedom of the proof mass. The single proof mass is spacecraft interferometry. On-bench variable point-ahead actuator still cubic, but in free-fall in the lateral degrees of freedom within the constellamechanism. Frequency swap for both ORO and tion plane. inter-spacecraft interferometer (using Also, the option of a completely free same laser sources). spherical proof mass with full laser (opti Optical bench oriented perpendicular cal) readout has been investigated concepto telescope line of sight. tually. The spherical proof mass would Open vacuum system throughout with rotate slowly and would not be spin conventing into space. trolled, but allowed to tumble. Imperfec Optomechanical configuration opti- tions in sphericity and density would be mized for actuation accommodation, coped with by providing attitude informacoping with launch loads and providing tion via a grid of tick marks etched onto thermoelastic stability. the surface and monitored by the laser In addition to the definition of the base- readout. Imperfections could be calibrated line payload architecture, Astrium has also during commissioning by mapping in a proposed and preliminarily assessed some high-spin mode. However, at the present innovative and exotic payload architec- stage of investigations, these novel paytures, with the goal to further reduce load concepts are not mature enough to overall complexity and to improve budgets challenge the baseline configuration.

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An update on LISA micronewton thruster technology

Measuring gravitational waves requires a drag-free environment with stringent, high-resolution requirements on both the pointing and the translation of the spacecraft. Since the stability of the spacecraft relates directly to the quality of the science measurements, the propulsion system is a critical component. Keeping the spacecraft centered on the proof masses requires microthrusters capable of balancing the solar radiation pressure and other disturbances, including small variations. With three sets of two operational thrusters distributed equally around the spacecraft, each LISA spacecraft requires thrust levels between 530 micronewton (N) with a resolution of 0.1 N and a thrust noise < 0.1 N/Hz in the LISA measurement bandwidth (0.03mHz10Hz). +25%) with 8.5 years of expendable propellant has proven difficult to demonstrate. In fact, a lifetime of greater than 4000 hours has not yet been demonstrated by any of the thruster technologies being considered by NASA or ESA. Currently NASA is responsible for developing U.S. microthruster technologies, and ESA is responsible for developing European microthruster technologies for LISA. In the US, we are focusing on further development of the Busek CMNT to meet the LISA lifetime requirements. Thruster life will be determined by physics-based models validated by laboratory experiments and short-term wear testing. This methodology must be employed because it is impossible to demonstrate a 55,000hour lifetime by the end of the LISA technology development program with ground tests alone. Multiple shortduration (10004000 hr) tests are used to identify failure mechanisms, and physics models are developed for each failure mode. One long-duration lifetest (> 8000 hr) will be conducted on a prototype thruster prior to the LISA Preliminary Design Review (PDR) (late 2009) in order to verify the models; this test might be continued through to the Critical Design Review (CDR). A second priority for U.S. efforts is to measure and understand properties of the exhaust beam, including contamination concerns and thrust noise at low frequencies.

John Ziemer
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Development of the CMNT is currently focused on long-duration testing and flight hardware delivery by the end of the summer in 2006. Three separate singleemitter tests have all demonstrated the required lifetime for ST7 (3300 hours of continuous operation) with no evidence of significant emitter erosion, plugging, or performance degradation. Developmental multiple-emitter long-duration tests have accumulated over 1500 hours of total operation, in the course of which we have solved problems related to propellant contamination and cleanliness, bubble formation and blockage, and equal distribution of propellant between the emitters. A new test is about to begin that will demonstrate the 3300-hour lifetime requirement for ST7 using a complete single thruster system. For LISA, we are focused on two critical issues to extend the lifetime of the CMNT: emitter blockage or clogging, and overspray of the exhaust beam onto the accelerating electrodes. Although both of these issues appear to have been solved for the ST7 lifetime requirements, they may still be issues for LISA lifetime requirements. In 2006 our technology development program is focused on resolving both these issues through minimal changes to the flight ST7 configuration. Using as much ST7 heritage as possible, this summer we will begin tests of six different emitter and electrode designs

Two microthruster technologies that can meet the LISA requirements will be demonstrated on LISA Pathfinder (LPF) and ST7-DRS (the specific U.S. experiment on LPF). The Colloid Micro-Newton Thruster (CMNT) is being developed by Busek Co. in the U.S. for ST7-DRS, and the Cesium Slit Field Emission Electric Propulsion (FEEP) thruster is being developed by ALTA in Italy for the LPF spacecraft. Although LPF and ST7 have similar performance requirements, the LISA mission has critical differences: a 25-fold increase in the lifetime and a tenfold increase in the requirements for total impulse per thruster. No single microthruster technology has, to date, demonstrated all of these requirements, especially the long lifetime, which is the most challenging for LISA. Although thrust range, noise, and precision have been measured directly for the CMNT and inferred from current and voltage measurements of the FEEP thrusters in the laboratory, the LISA requirement for 55,000 hours of op- Left panel: a Field Emission Electric Propulsion Thruster eration (5 years Newton Thruster (CMNT).

(FEEP). Right panel: a Colloid Micro-

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that could relieve the lifetime issues for LISA. These component-level tests will last for at least 3000 hours to verify models of emitter clogging and the exhaustbeam particle trajectories. As described earlier, the results and models will used to design an engineering model of a thruster head that will go into a system-level long duration test that will last for at least 8000 hours before the LISA PDR. Performance of the CMNT has been measured on a thrust stand and shown to meet thrust range, resolution, and noise requirements down to 7 mHz. Below this frequency, thrust-stand noise and drift dominate the measurement. However, verified thrust models based on voltage and current measurements have shown that the noise requirements can be met down to 0.3 mHz. We continue to work on thrust measurements and control algorithms for ST7 and expect that the LISA requirements will be demonstrated and verified on orbit by the ST7 mission. Long-duration thrust noise measurements will be part of the LISA microthruster

technology development program. The plume of the CMNT has been investigated using various plasma diagnostics including measurements of current density, plasma potential, and mass deposition, as well as droplet energy, mass, and charge throughout the exhaust beam. All of these results have been used to generate verified models of droplet and ion formation at the tip of the emitter and propagation downstream. The models will be used to design new electrode geometries and predict beam spread as a function of current and thrust, to insure that the plume does not impinge on the spacecraft. We are also examining interactions of the positively charged beam with the electrons from the cathode neutralizer. The measurements have shown that no charged particles exit the thruster beyond a 35-degree half-angle at the maximumdivergence operating condition set by electrode geometry. Measurements have shown that no measurable mass deposition occurs outside of a 45-degree halfangle, and more detailed measurements at

various angles will begin soon. Busek has developed a carbon nano-tube fieldemission cathode neutralizer that has demonstrated over 13,000 hours of continuous operation at higher-than-required current levels. This neutralizer may not even be required for the colloid microthruster technology, since electron photoemission from the spacecrafts solar panels might provide enough low-energy electrons to maintain the spacecraft potential at a low level. For the LISA microthruster technology development program, our focus is on thruster lifetime, performance, and spacecraft interactions. We will continue to work closely with the ST7 CMNT development, relying on the flight heritage and experience to reduce risk and cost for LISA. Our efforts in the next two years will focus on extending the lifetime of the ST7 design through better understanding the of the thruster operation, verified models of thruster performance and lifetime limiting mechanisms, and multiple long-duration tests.
Fore more LISA information: lisa.nasa.gov lisa.esa.int For technical and scientic details: www.srl.caltech.edu/lisa

Forthcoming LISA meetings

48 June, 2006 208th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society Calgary, Alberta www.aas.org/meetings

516 June 2006 South Padre Island, Texas 3rd GW Astronomy Summer School cgwa.phys.utb.edu/Events/SummerSchool.php 1718 June 2006 LIST Working Groups, LIST Meeting Goddard Space Flight Center www.srl.caltech.edu/lisa

1925 June 2006 Goddard Space Flight Center 6th International LISA Symposium (LISA 6) lisa6.gsfc.nasa.gov
914 July 2006 Physics and Astrophysics of Supermassive BHs 1623 July 2006 36th COSPAR Scientific Assembly 2329 July 2006 11th Marcel Grossman Meeting 47 October 2006 HEAD 2006 Santa Fe, New Mexico qso.lanl.gov/meetings/meet2006 Beijing, China meetings.copernicus.org/cospar2006 Berlin, Germany www.icra.it/MG/mg11 San Francisco, California www.confcon.com/head2006

This Newsletter was published by the U.S. LISA Mission Science Ofce at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Issue 2006-1 was edited by Bonny Schumaker, Michele Vallisneri, Karen Willacy, and Teviet Creighton (JPL). Figure credits: NASA (cover, this page); Teviet Creighton, JPL (p. 3); Stefano Vitale, Univ. of Trento, Italy (gs. 1, 2, 3 on pp. 4 and 5); Carlo Gavazzi Space (g. 4, p. 5); Albert Einstein Institute & EadsAstrium GmbH (g. 5, p. 5); Frans Pretorius, University of Alberta (g. 1, p. 6); Manuela Campanelli, Univ. of Texas, Brownsville (g. 2, p. 6); John Baker, GSFC (p. 7); Astrium GmbH (p. 9); John Ziemer, JPL (p. 10).

2125 August 2006 Prague, Czechoslovakia IAU Symposium 238: Black Holes from Stars to Galaxies astro.cas.cz/iaus238 1115 December 2006 23rd Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics 1821 December 2006 GWDAW-11 11 Melbourne, Australia www.texas06.com

Albert Einstein Institute, Golm, Germany gwdaw11.aei.mpg.de

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology 4800 Oak Grove Dr Pasadena CA 91106 www.nasa.gov in partnership with European Space Agency European Space Research & Technology Center Keplerlaan 1, Postbus 299 2200 AB Noordwijk, The Netherlands www.esa.int Goddard Space Flight Center 8800 Greenbelt Rd Greenbelt MD 20771

JPL 410-70 Issue 1 05/06

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