Pointing acquisition and performance for the laser interferometry space antenna mission

Abstract

The laser interferometer space antenna (LISA) mission, a space-based gravitational wave detector, uses laser metrology to measure distance fluctuations between proof masses aboard three spacecraft. Each spacecraft has two incoming and two outgoing laser beams for a total of six laser links. These links are established sequentially at the start of the mission, and the spacecraft control systems must aim their lasers at each other with pointing motions less than 8 nrad Hz−1/2 in the frequency band 1–100 mHz. The process for acquiring the laser links as well as the simulated performance is described.