The “Galileo Galilei” (GG) project: Testing the Equivalence Principle in space and on Earth

Nobili, A. M.; Bramanti, D.; Polacco, E.; Catastini, G.; Anselmi, Alberto; Portigliotti, S.; Lenti, A.; Severi, Alberto

doi:10.1016/s0273-1177(99)00992-8

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…This accuracy is very demanding with respect to the instrument and satellite production and operation, which is, as it is shown hereafter for the MICROSCOPE mission, already at the limit of the state of the art of many spacecraft technologies. Another mission, called Galileo Gallilei (Nobili et al 2000), takes advantage, like in MICROSCOPE, of room temperature capacitive position sensing but considers the rotation of the test masses at rather high frequency, a few Hz, in order to better decouple their relative motion to the satellite disturbances in presence of mechanical spring between them, contrarily to MICROSCOPE. A laboratory model of the instrument is also developed to assess on ground the instrument concept and configuration.…”

Section: The Microscope Space Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Microscope Mission and Its Uncertainty Analysis

Touboul

2009

Space Sci Rev

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The accurate test of the Universality of Free Fall may demonstrate a violation of Einstein Equivalence Principle (EP) as most attempts of Grand Unification theories seem to conduct. The MICROSCOPE space mission aims at an accuracy of 10 −15 with a small drag free satellite and a payload based on electrostatic inertial sensors. The two test-masses made of Platinum and Titanium alloys are forced to follow accurately the same orbit. The sets of surrounding electrodes carried by gold coated silica parts allows the generation of electrical fields and electrostatic pressures on the masses. Common forces and torques are exploited to control the satellite drag compensation system and its fine inertial or rotating pointing. Difference in the force along the Earth gravity monopole is accurately measured and interpreted for the test. After a short presentation of the mission and the instrument, most of the relevant parameters to the experiment performance are detailed as well as the associated technologies to reach the expected levels of accuracy. Present error budgets confirm the test expected accuracy of better than 10 −15 .

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Section: The Microscope Space Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Microscope Mission and Its Uncertainty Analysis

Touboul

2009

Space Sci Rev

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“…To date, the validity of the EP has been tested to an accuracy of σ (η) = 1.8 × 10 −13 [1], and several ground-based and space-borne experiments of increasing projected accuracy such as the ground-based principle of equivalence measurement (G-POEM), ICE, HYPER, Einstein Elevator, GG, SR-POEM, STEP and MICROSCOPE are currently under development or have been proposed for the near future [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Test masses for the G-POEM test of the weak equivalence principle

Reasenberg¹,

Phillips²,

Popescu³

2011

Class. Quantum Grav.

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We describe the design of the test masses that are used in the 'ground-based principle of equivalence measurement' test of the weak equivalence principle. The main features of the design are the incorporation of corner cubes and the use of mass removal and replacement to create pairs of test masses with different test substances. The corner cubes allow for the vertical separation of the test masses to be measured with picometer accuracy by SAO's unique tracking frequency laser gauge, while the mass removal and replacement operations are arranged so that the test masses incorporating different test substances have nominally identical gravitational properties.

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“…Present day satellite technologies are enabling EP tests to be performed this range, beginning with MICROSCOPE, which will reach 10 À15 (Touboul et al, 2001). Potential future missions include the Galileo-Galelei (GG) mission (Nobili et al, 2000), proposing 10 À17 , and STEP (Mester et al, 2004), which targets 10 À18 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%