LARES, Laser Relativity Satellite, is a spherical laser-ranged satellite, passive and covered with retroreflectors. It will be launched with ESA’s new launch vehicle VEGA (ESA-ELV-ASI-AVIO) in early 2012. Its orbital elements will be: inclination 70 ◦ ± 1 ◦ , semi-major axis 7830 km and near zero eccentricity. Its weight is about 387 kg and its radius 18.2 cm. It will be the single known most dense body orbiting Earth in the solar system, and the non-gravitational perturbations will be minimized by its very small ’cross-section-to-mass’ ratio. The main objective of the LARES satellite is a test of the frame-dragging effect, a consequence of the gravitomagnetic field predicted by Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. Together with the orbital data from LAGEOS and LAGEOS 2, it will allow a measurement of frame-dragging with an accuracy of a few percent.
LARES: a new ASI mission to improve the measurement of Lense-Thirring Effect with Satellite Laser Ranging / E. C., Pavlis; I., Ciufolini; Paolozzi, Antonio. - STAMPA. - --:(2012), pp. 252-255. (Intervento presentato al convegno Journées 2011 Systèmes de référence spatio-temporels tenutosi a Vienna, Austria nel 19-21 Settembre 2011).
LARES: a new ASI mission to improve the measurement of Lense-Thirring Effect with Satellite Laser Ranging.
PAOLOZZI, Antonio
2012
Abstract
LARES, Laser Relativity Satellite, is a spherical laser-ranged satellite, passive and covered with retroreflectors. It will be launched with ESA’s new launch vehicle VEGA (ESA-ELV-ASI-AVIO) in early 2012. Its orbital elements will be: inclination 70 ◦ ± 1 ◦ , semi-major axis 7830 km and near zero eccentricity. Its weight is about 387 kg and its radius 18.2 cm. It will be the single known most dense body orbiting Earth in the solar system, and the non-gravitational perturbations will be minimized by its very small ’cross-section-to-mass’ ratio. The main objective of the LARES satellite is a test of the frame-dragging effect, a consequence of the gravitomagnetic field predicted by Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. Together with the orbital data from LAGEOS and LAGEOS 2, it will allow a measurement of frame-dragging with an accuracy of a few percent.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
