The Constellation of LARES and LAGEOS Satellites for Testing General Relativity

LARES was developed under the support of the Italian Space Agency. It has been successfully put in orbit on the 13th February 2012 with the VEGA launcher. The main objective of the LARES mission is to test frame-dragging, with the unprecedented accuracy of about 1%. Frame-dragging is an intriguing phenomenon that together with gravitational waves and other relativistic effects is not predicted by classical Galilei-Newton mechanics and find its explanation in the theory of General Relativity. By determining very accurately the orbit of the constellation constituted by LARES and the two LAGEOS satellites, it is possible to achieve such an objective. In the paper it will be shown that the use of the constellation is not the only ingredient required and in particular LARES needed to be designed at the limit of current technology. Also the most updated and accurate determinations of the gravitational field of Earth are of paramount importance in the test. The paper will describe the main LARES mission components and will show why it is so important the use of a constellation to reach the goal.