Acceleration disturbances and requirements for ASTROD I

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the sources of acceleration disturbances in ASTROD I, a space mission designed to test relativistic gravity, and derives disturbance requirements to ensure precise measurements, showing these are less stringent than those for LISA.

Contribution

It provides a preliminary overview of acceleration disturbance sources for ASTROD I and establishes disturbance requirements based on simple control loop models.

Findings

Most disturbance requirements for ASTROD I are less strict than LISA's.

Estimated disturbance magnitudes meet the mission's precision goals.

Preliminary analysis guides design considerations for ASTROD I.

Abstract

ASTRODynamical Space Test of Relativity using Optical Devices I (ASTROD I) mainly aims at testing relativistic gravity and measuring the solar-system parameters with high precision, by carrying out laser ranging between a spacecraft in a solar orbit and ground stations. In order to achieve these goals, the magnitude of the total acceleration disturbance of the proof mass has to be less than 10−13 m s−2 Hz−1/2 at 0.1 m Hz. In this paper, we give a preliminary overview of the sources and magnitude of acceleration disturbances that could arise in the ASTROD I proof mass. Based on the estimates of the acceleration disturbances and by assuming a simple controlloop model, we infer requirements for ASTROD I. Our estimates show that most of the requirements for ASTROD I can be relaxed in comparison with Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA).