Related papers: Electrostatic accelerometer with bias rejection fo…
The inverse square law of gravity is poorly probed by experimental tests at distances of ~ 10 AUs. Recent analysis of the trajectory of the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft have shown an unmodeled acceleration directed toward the Sun which was…
Forthcoming astrometric missions such as the Gaia satellite will bring to the fore the problem of estimating the enclosed mass from a set of positions, radial velocities and proper motions of tracer stars. Here, we show how to construct the…
Existing capabilities in laser ranging, optical interferometry and metrology, in combination with precision frequency standards, atom-based quantum sensors, and drag-free technologies, are critical for the space-based tests of fundamental…
A unique test of general relativity is possible with the space radio telescope RadioAstron. The ultra-stable on-board hydrogen maser frequency standard and the highly eccentric orbit make RadioAstron an ideal instrument for probing the…
NASA has been considering a solar sail that would accelerate a craft to a high velocity (~ 14 AU/yr) by the time it reached 5 AU. Then the sail would be dropped and the craft would coast alone to deep space. We propose that the sail be…
We investigate the utility of a constellation of four satellites in heliocentric orbit, equipped with accurate means to measure intersatellite ranges, round-trip times and phases of signals coherently retransmitted between members of the…
The NASA InSight mission has helped to measure the deep interior of Mars using observations of seismic waves excited by marsquakes. Currently, installation of seismometers on the moon is foreseen. We review the case for seismic experiments…
We summarise the scientific and technological aspects of the SAGAS (Search for Anomalous Gravitation using Atomic Sensors) project, submitted to ESA in June 2007 in response to the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 call for proposals. The proposed…
Advanced civilizations capable of interstellar travel, if they exist, are likely to have advanced propulsion methods. Spaceships moving at high speeds would leave a particular signature which could be detected from Earth. We propose a…
In this communication, we focus on the possibility to test General Relativity (GR) with radioscience experiments. We present simulations of observables performed in alternative theories of gravity using a software that simulates…
Observational data from the ESA astrometric mission Gaia determining the positions of celestial objects within an accuracy of few microarcseconds will be soon fully available. Other satellite-based space missions are currently planned to…
The main advantage of an atomic accelerometer when compared to a classical accelerometer is negligible bias drift, allowing for stable long-term measurements, which opens the potential application in navigation. This negligible drift arises…
Atom interferometers have been developed in the last three decades as new powerful tools to investigate gravity. They were used for measuring the gravity acceleration, the gravity gradient, and the gravity-field curvature, for the…
How does one measure the gravitational field? We give explicit answers to this fundamental question and show how all components of the curvature tensor, which represents the gravitational field in Einstein's theory of General Relativity,…
We propose an experiment using a conventional optical telescope to determine whether aberration of starlight results from special relativistic effects external to a measurement sensor or from optical effects within a sensor. The proposed…
The direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs) is an invaluable new tool to probe gravity and the nature of cosmic acceleration. A large class of scalar-tensor theories predict that GWs propagate with velocity different than the speed of…
The Laser Astrometric Test Of Relativity (LATOR) is a joint European-U.S. Michelson-Morley-type experiment designed to test the pure tensor metric nature of gravitation - a fundamental postulate of Einstein's theory of general relativity.…
The capture of a stellar-mass compact object by a supermassive black hole and the subsequent inspiral (driven by gravitational radiation emission) constitute one of the most important sources of gravitational waves for space-based…
With the advent of optical interferometers that will be coming online in the next decade, radial velocity searches for extra-solar planets will be complemented by high angular resolution astrometric measurements. In this paper, we explore…
With the inception of gravitational wave astronomy, astrophysical studies using interferometric techniques have begun to probe previously unknown parts of the universe. In this work, we investigate the potential of a new interferometric…