During the On-Station Thermal Test campaign of the LISA Pathfinder the data and diagnostics subsystem was tested in nearly space conditions for the first time after integration in the satellite. The results showed the compliance of the temperature measurement system, obtaining temperature noise around 10−4KHz−1/2 in the frequency band of 1−30mHz. In addition, controlled injection of heat signals to the suspension struts anchoring the LISA Technology Package (LTP) Core Assembly to the satellite structure allowed to experimentally estimate for the first time the phase noise contribution through thermo-elastic distortion of the LTP interferometer, the satellite's main instrument. Such contribution was found to be at 10−12mHz−1/2, a factor of 30 below the measured noise at the lower end of the measurement bandwidth (1mHz).
@article{arxiv.1405.5442,
title = {Thermo-elastic induced phase noise in the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft},
author = {Ferran Gibert and Miquel Nofrarias and Nikolaos Karnesis and Lluís Gesa and Víctor Martín and Ignacio Mateos and Alberto Lobo and Reinhold Flatscher and Domenico Gerardi and Johannes Burkhardt and Ruediger Gerndt and David Robertson and Henry Ward and Paul William McNamara and Felipe Guzmán and Martin Hewitson and Ingo Diepholz and Jens Reiche and Gerhard Heinzel and Karsten Danzmann},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1405.5442},
year = {2015}
}