The LAser RElativity Satellite (LARES) has been successfully launched on the 13th of February 2012 with the VEGA maiden flight. Its main objective is to test an aspect predicted in Einstein General Relativity known as dragging of inertial frames, the Earth rotation by dragging the spacetime will also drag the orbital plane of LARES by a tiny but measurable amount, this is also known as Lense-Thirring effect. The International Laser Ranging Service is providing the ground tracking of the satellite by sending laser pulses and by measuring the relevant return time of flight. Due to the presence of sensible periodical perturbations, it is necessary to analyze several years of data before an accurate test of the Lense-Thirring effect could be performed. Furthermore to eliminate some huge effects of classical gravitational perturbations on the orbital node of LARES, data have to be analyzed together with those of the LAGEOS and LAGEOS 2 satellites, provided also that an accurate determination of the gravitational field of Earth is inserted in the orbital determination programs used in the orbital estimation. In this paper the physics underlying the experiment will be recalled and the ground operations and all the experimental activities performed to acquire the orbital data of the satellite will be described.
Operation and data analysis of LARES satellite
CIUFOLINI, Ignazio;
2014-01-01
Abstract
The LAser RElativity Satellite (LARES) has been successfully launched on the 13th of February 2012 with the VEGA maiden flight. Its main objective is to test an aspect predicted in Einstein General Relativity known as dragging of inertial frames, the Earth rotation by dragging the spacetime will also drag the orbital plane of LARES by a tiny but measurable amount, this is also known as Lense-Thirring effect. The International Laser Ranging Service is providing the ground tracking of the satellite by sending laser pulses and by measuring the relevant return time of flight. Due to the presence of sensible periodical perturbations, it is necessary to analyze several years of data before an accurate test of the Lense-Thirring effect could be performed. Furthermore to eliminate some huge effects of classical gravitational perturbations on the orbital node of LARES, data have to be analyzed together with those of the LAGEOS and LAGEOS 2 satellites, provided also that an accurate determination of the gravitational field of Earth is inserted in the orbital determination programs used in the orbital estimation. In this paper the physics underlying the experiment will be recalled and the ground operations and all the experimental activities performed to acquire the orbital data of the satellite will be described.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
