Related papers: Towards a 1% measurement of the Lense-Thirring eff…
The strategy followed so far in the performed or proposed tests of the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect in the gravitational field of the Earth with laser-ranged satellites of LAGEOS type relies upon the cancelation of the…
In this brief note some comments about the observable used in a recently published paper on the measurement of the general relativistic Lense-Thirring in the gravitational field of the Earth are presented. It turns out that, among other…
In 2016, we published "A test of general relativity using the LARES and LAGEOS satellites and a GRACE Earth gravity model. Measurement of Earth's dragging of inertial frames [1]", a measurement of frame-dragging, a fundamental prediction of…
Recently, Ciufolini and coworkers announced the forthcoming launch of a new cannonball geodetic satellite in 2019. It should be injected in an essentially circular path with the same semimajor axis $a$ of LAGEOS, in orbit since 1976, and an…
In this paper we reply to recent claims by Ciufolini and Pavlis about certain aspects of the measurement of the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect in the gravitational field of the Earth. I) The proposal by such authors of using the…
The precession of the orbital node of a particle orbiting a rotating mass is known as Lense-Thirring effect (LTE) and is a manifestation of the general relativistic phenomenon of dragging of inertial frames or frame-dragging. The LTE has…
We discuss the impact of the present-day uncertainties in the recently released CHAMP and/or GRACE Earth gravity models on the measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect with the nodes of the LAGEOS satellites. Also the role of the secular…
In this work some aspects of the detection of certain general relativistic effects in the weak gravitational field of the Earth via laser-ranged data to some existing or proposed geodetic satellites are examined. The focus is on the…
It has been recently proposed to combine the node drifts of the future constellation of 27 Galileo spacecraft together with those of the existing LAGEOS-type satellites to improve the accuracy of the past and ongoing tests of the…
After a brief introduction on the scientific objectives of the LARES/WEBER-SAT satellite we present the recent measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect using the nodes of the LAGEOS and LAGEOS 2 satellites and using the Earth gravity model…
We examine how the new forthcoming Earth gravity models from the CHAMP and, especially, GRACE missions could improve the measurement of the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect according to the various kinds of observables which could…
On February 13th 2012, the LARES satellite of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) was launched into orbit with the qualification flight of the new VEGA launcher of the European Space Agency (ESA). The payload was released very accurately in the…
We introduce the LARES 2 space experiment recently approved by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The LARES 2 satellite is planned for launch in 2019 with the new VEGA C launch vehicle of ASI, ESA and ELV. The orbital analysis of LARES 2…
The impact of possible a-priori "imprinting" effects of general relativity itself on recent attempts to measure the Lense-Thirring precessions with the LAGEOS satellites orbiting the Earth and the terrestrial geopotential models by the…
In the previous paper we have introduced the LARES 2 space experiment. The LARES 2 laser-ranged satellite is planned for a launch in 2019 with the new VEGA C launch vehicle of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), ESA and ELV. The main objectives…
The Lense-Thirring effect is currently being measured by means of a combination of the orbital residuals of the nodes of LAGEOS and LAGEOS II and the perigee of LAGEOS II. The total error is of the order of 20%. The most insidious…
With quantitative numerical simulations we show that the secular variations of the even zonal harmonics of the geopotential do affect the measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect with the nodes of LAGEOS and LAGEOS II at a \sim 14% level.…
In this paper we wish to preliminary investigate if it would be possible to use the orbital data from the proposed OPTIS mission together with those from the existing geodetic passive SLR LAGEOS and LAGEOS II satellites in order to perform…
Here we analyze in detail some aspects of the proposed use of Ajisai and Jason-1, together with the LAGEOS satellites, to measure the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect in the gravitational field of the Earth. A linear combination…
In the context of the currently ongoing efforts to improve the accuracy and reliability of the measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect in the gravitational field of the Earth it has recently been proposed to use the data from the existing…