A new laser-ranged satellite for General Relativity and space geodesy: I. An introduction to the LARES2 space experiment

Abstract

We introduce the LARES 2 space experiment recently approved by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The LARES 2 satellite is planned for launch in 2019 with the new VEGA C launch vehicle of ASI, ESA and ELV. The orbital analysis of LARES 2 experiment will be carried out by our international science team of experts in General Relativity, theoretical physics, space geodesy and aerospace engineering. The main objectives of the LARES 2 experiment are gravitational and fundamental physics, including accurate measurements of General Relativity, in particular a test of frame-dragging aimed at achieving an accuracy of a few parts in a thousand, i.e., aimed at improving by about an order of magnitude the present state-of-the-art and forthcoming tests of this general relativistic phenomenon. LARES 2 will also achieve determinations in space geodesy. LARES 2 is an improved version of the LAGEOS 3 experiment, proposed in 1984 to measure frame-dragging and analyzed in 1989 by a joint ASI and NASA study.

16 pages

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• Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe
• Gravity Probe B: Final Results of a Space Experiment to Test General Relativity
• The effects of Chern-Simons gravity on bodies orbiting the Earth
• A new laser-ranged satellite for General Relativity and Space Geodesy II. Monte Carlo Simulations and covariance analyses of the LARES 2 Experiment
• A new laser-ranged satellite for General Relativity and space geodesy: IV. Thermal drag and the LARES 2 space experiment

Cited by in corpus (10)

• GENESIS: Co-location of Geodetic Techniques in Space
• A new laser-ranged satellite for General Relativity and Space Geodesy II. Monte Carlo Simulations and covariance analyses of the LARES 2 Experiment
• A new laser-ranged satellite for General Relativity and space geodesy: IV. Thermal drag and the LARES 2 space experiment
• Lense-Thirring precession and modified gravity constraints
• GINGER
• Probing Supermassive Black Hole Binaries with Orbital Resonances of Laser-Ranged Satellite
• Neural Network Analysis of S2-Star Dynamics: Extended mass
• On the Earth's tidal perturbations. II. LARES 2 satellite
• S2-star dynamics probing the Galaxy core cluster
• Frame-dragging: meaning, myths, and misconceptions