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arXiv · 2012.06472

MICROSCOPE mission analysis, requirements and expected performance

Pierre Touboul·Manuel Rodrigues·Gilles Métris·Ratana Chhun·Alain Robert·Quentin Baghi·Emilie Hardy·Joel Bergé·Damien Boulanger·Bruno Christophe·Valerio Cipolla·Bernard Foulon·Pierre-Yves Guidotti·Phuong-Anh Huynh·Vincent Lebat·Françoise Liorzou·Benjamin Pouilloux·Pascal Prieur·Serge Reynaud
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Abstract

The MICROSCOPE mission aimed to test the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP) to a precision of $10^{-15}$. The WEP states that two bodies fall at the same rate on a gravitational field independently of their mass or composition. In MICROSCOPE, two masses of different compositions (titanium and platinum alloys) are placed on a quasi-circular trajectory around the Earth. They are the test-masses of a double accelerometer. The measurement of their accelerations is used to extract a potential WEP violation that would occur at a frequency defined by the motion and attitude of the satellite around the Earth. This paper details the major drivers of the mission leading to the specification of the major subsystems (satellite, ground segment, instrument, orbit...). Building upon the measurement equation, we derive the objective of the test in statistical and systematic error allocation and provide the mission's expected error budget.

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Pierre Touboul, Manuel Rodrigues, Gilles Métris, Ratana Chhun, Alain Robert, Quentin Baghi, Emilie Hardy, Joel Bergé, Damien Boulanger, Bruno Christophe, Valerio Cipolla, Bernard Foulon, Pierre-Yves Guidotti, Phuong-Anh Huynh, Vincent Lebat, Françoise Liorzou, Benjamin Pouilloux, Pascal Prieur, Serge Reynaud. 2020-12-11. MICROSCOPE mission analysis, requirements and expected performance. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/abebf1

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