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| Paper: |
Possible Periodic Orbit Control Maneuvers for an eLISA Mission |
| Volume: |
467, 9th LISA Symposium |
| Page: |
203 |
| Authors: |
Bender, P. L.; Welter, G. L. |
| Abstract: |
This paper investigates the possible application of periodic orbit control maneuvers for so-called evolved-LISA (eLISA) missions, i.e., missions for which the constellation arm lengths and mean distance from the Earth are substantially reduced. We find that for missions with arm lengths of ∼ 106 km and Earth-trailing distance ranging from ∼ 12° to 20° over the science lifetime, the occasional use of the spacecraft micro-Newton thrusters for constellation configuration maintenance should be able to essentially eliminate constellation distortion caused by Earth-induced tidal forces at a cost to science time of only a few percent. With interior angle variation kept to ∼ ± 0.1°, the required changes in the angles between the laser beam pointing directions for the two arms from any spacecraft could be kept quite small. This would considerably simplify the apparatus necessary for changing the transmitted beam directions. |
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