Talk detail

Participant	Di Fiore, Luciano
Institution	INFN - Napoli - Via Cintia - Napoli - - Italy

Session	GW3	Accepted		Order	Time
Talk	Oral abstract	Title	PETER, a two stage torsion pendulum for testing free fall condition on ground on two DOFs
Coauthors
Abstract	Ground testing of free fall condition with torsion pendula has been a key topics for the development and characterization of the Gravitational Reference Sensors (GRS) for LISA-Pathfinder. Usually, a single stage torsion pendulum only permits to simulate free fall on one single DOF, allowing to measure, depending on the actual test mass (TM) geometry, either force or torque acting on the TM. We have developed a two stage torsion pendulum facility (named PETER) that permits simultaneous measurement of both force and torque allowing to measure cross couplings in sensing and actuation as well as residual stiffness among different DOFs. We will describe the principle of operation and the main features of the apparatus and report and the measurement performed so far testing the engineering model of the LISA-Pathfinder GRS. These measurements provide relevant information for the characterization of the GRS and the interpretation and debugging of LISA-Pathfinder flight data
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