SURFACE TREATMENT ON BREADBOARDS OF LARES SATELLITE

LARES satellite was launched on the 13th of February 2012 using the new European Space Agency (ESA) launcher VEGA from Kourou Spaceport in French Guyana. LARES is a passive satellite of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) devised and designed by the University of Salento and Sapienza to measure with high accuracy the effect of the Earth angular momentum on the spacetime geometry and on the orbital motion of a satellite. This effect is called frame-dragging or Lense-Thirring effect and was published in 1918 using Einstein’s equations soon after the publication of general relativity. Because of its design, optimized to minimize the non gravitational perturbations, LARES is the known single object orbiting in the solar system with the highest mean density. The LARES experiment is indeed performed also with two more satellites LAGEOS (NASA) and LAGEOS 2 (NASA and ASI). Before the launch it was studied the possibility either to depose a thin film or to paint the satellite in such a way to perform a passive temperature control of the satellite. In the paper all the different options considered and the actual final choice decided for LARES surface treatment will be described.