LISA mission’s Science Diagnostics Subsystem successfully passes Preliminary Design Review
The LISA mission has reached a key milestone in its development. The European Space Agency (ESA) has determined that the preliminary design of one of its subsystems—the Science Diagnostics Subsystem (SDS)—meets all mission requirements. This means ESA has given the green light to proceed to the detailed design phase, which will involve testing the system’s first prototypes.
Researchers from the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) are leading the Spanish contribution to this project, providing their expertise to the development of the SDS instrument, among others. The Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), also through IEEC members, is collaborating on this task alongside the company Sener.
The LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) mission will consist of three spacecraft separated by 2.5 million kilometres that will form a gravitational wave detector, the first to operate from space. Each of the spacecraft will house a mass in freefall in its interior, which will allow, through laser measurements between them, the detection of the effect of low-frequency gravitational waves (0.1 mHz – 1 Hz). The mission will allow for the study of phenomena such as the merger of massive black holes or compact systems in our galaxy, and will expand our vision of the universe.
The SDS is one of the primary components of the mission’s payload led by Spain. In total, the SDS subsystem will put more than one hundred sensors into orbit to measure temperature, magnetic fields, and radiation. These will monitor environmental fluctuations from both the satellite and the interplanetary environment with extreme precision. Detecting gravitational waves requires measuring incredibly weak forces—on the order of the weight of a single bacterium. Therefore, the SDS’s role in distinguishing the effects of gravitational waves from environmental noise is critical to the mission’s success.
The successfully passed evaluation, called PDR (Preliminary Design Review), is the culmination of a process that formally began at the start of the year. The most decisive moment took place on 25 February, when the team travelled to the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), ESA’s technical offices in Noordwijk (Netherlands), to review and resolve the open points regarding this key mission system.
The LISA mission, led by ESA, receives funding from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain through the Spanish Space Agency (AEE).