A new laser-ranged satellite for General Relativity and space geodesy: IV. Thermal drag and the LARES 2 space experiment

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the impact of thermal drag on the LARES 2 satellite's ability to precisely test frame-dragging, confirming it introduces an uncertainty of about one part per thousand in the measurement.

Contribution

It quantifies the effect of thermal drag on the LARES 2 experiment's error budget, refining the accuracy assessment of frame-dragging measurements.

Findings

Thermal drag causes approximately one part per thousand uncertainty.

Thermal effects are consistent with previous error estimates.

The study improves the understanding of non-gravitational perturbations in space geodesy.

Abstract

In three previous papers we presented the LARES 2 space experiment aimed at a very accurate test of frame-dragging and at other tests of fundamental physics and measurements of space geodesy and geodynamics. We presented the error sources in the LARES 2 experiment, its error budget, Monte Carlo simulations and covariance analyses confirming an accuracy of a few parts per thousand in the test of frame-dragging, and we treated the error due to the uncertainty in the de Sitter effect, a relativistic orbital perturbation. Here we discuss the impact in the error budget of the LARES 2 frame-dragging experiment of the orbital perturbation due to thermal drag or thermal thrust. We show that the thermal drag induces an uncertainty of about one part per thousand in the LARES 2 frame-dragging test, consistent with the error estimates in our previous papers.