from Hacker News

Capturing the ripples of spacetime: LISA gets go-ahead

by ssl232 on 1/25/24, 3:40 PM with 26 comments

  • by cypherpunks01 on 1/26/24, 2:24 AM

    How's this thing powered? Are solar or big RTGs enough? I would think power requirements for these scale lasers, detectors, and transmissions would be pretty large. Isn't it an extraordinary amount of data that needs to be constantly sent back to Earth? I thought LIGO was generating a crazy amount of data per day beyond what I'd think would be possible to stream live back to Earth from so far away.

    Also, how can the test masses remain in free fall, while each satellite is undergoing course corrections? Or are corrections infrequent enough for satellites in this earth-following orbit that it wouldn't cause any real amount of downtime? Of course Earth is free-falling.

  • by rqtwteye on 1/25/24, 10:39 PM

    Such a cool project. The precisions involved in gravitational astronomy are simply mind blowing.

  • by bonyt on 1/25/24, 10:20 PM

    "Eddies," said Ford, "in the space-time continuum."

    "Ah," nodded Arthur, "is he. Is he."

  • by robocat on 1/25/24, 11:04 PM

    I presume it doesn't capture ripple direction very well.

    Does the design only capture ripples travelling in the ecliptic?

  • by hossbeast on 1/26/24, 12:31 AM

    "The launch of the three spacecraft is planned for 2035, on an Ariane 6 rocket."