The first announcement that the experiment was running according to plan came at the beginning of May: The research satellite carrying an experiment of the Center for Aerospace Research and Microgravity (ZARM) was transmitting! The research team at ZARM was able to watch via video broadcast as their French colleagues initialized the experiment on board MICROSCOPE (MICRO Satellite à traînée Compensée pour l'Observation du Principe d'Equivalence) and the measuring instruments transmitted the first test results back to Earth. This marked the most important milestone of the test phase that will tell us whether Einstein‘s theory of relativity will be still be valid when the satellite mission is over.http://www.uni-bremen.de/no_cache/aktuelle-meldungen/einzelanzeige/news/detail/News/hatte-einstein-wirklich-recht.html?cHash=26274304f2d339842963ed24192ec410
Success announcement came via Twitter
“#TSAGE @onera_fr is on. The test masses have been released and servo looped!!!! Great all green“, read the Twitter message sent by the French partners to confirm that the test bodies, which will now be under observation in free fall over a two-year period, had been released from their locking device and the experiment was now well and truly under way. Up to that time, though, the ZARM team comprising Hanns Selig, Meike List, Benny Rievers and Stefanie Bremer had been kept acutely on edge for several days: The launch of the Russian Soyuz rocket had to be postponed three times before the eventual lift-off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, on April 25, 2016. But all’s well that ends well, and everything was now running strictly according to plan. Following an initial calibration phase that will last until June, there will be a short time window during which the transmission of data will be interrupted. This is due to the unfavorable orbit at that time.
Perfect timing
It is extremely important to reduce disturbances to an absolute minimum during the time the measuring equipment on board the satellite is transmitting data. For this reason, the satellite was put into an orbit which ensures sunlight for the greater part of the year, This was done to avoid excessive fluctuations of temperature between the times it is in the Earth’s shadow or fully exposed to the sun’s rays. Between June and August the satellite’s orbit partly takes it into the Earth’s shadow and during this time no measurements will be taken because this would distort the evaluation results. At the end of August, though, the ZARM scientists in Bremen and their French project partners in Paris will begin the long-awaited phase of data evaluation.
Mission background
MICROSCOPE is currently the most important satellite mission for investigating some of the fundamental physical laws of nature. The aim of the two-year project is to carry out experiments to test the equivalence principle, which maintains that when in a vacuum, physical bodies on Earth will fall at the same rate, no matter what materials they are comprised of – provided that all disturbances like magnetic fields, for example, are completely absent. The equivalence principle is not only a basic assumption of classic mechanics, but also and above all a cornerstone of the theory of relativity founded by Einstein, whose centenary was celebrated last year. The expectations placed on the MICROSCOPE mission are therefore correspondingly high. The Mission could prove that Einstein was wrong: To disprove the equivalence principle that has for more than 100 years been accepted as a given would be a sensation and mean that alternative theories would have to be developed.
ZARM is the sole non-French partner of the project
MICROSCOPE was initiated jointly by the French research establishments ONERA (Office national d'études et de recherches aérospatiales) and OCA (Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur) and is financed by the French Aerospace Agency (CNES). The sole non-French partner is ZARM, whose project contribution is supported by the aerospace management of German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Birgit Kinkeldey
For more information on this topic, please contact:
University of Bremen
Center for Aerospace Research and Microgravity (ZARM)
Dr. Meike List (Leader of research group "Micro Satellite Systems and Modelling Methods"
Phone: +49 421 218-57830
email: meike.listprotect me ?!zarm.uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
Contact person for general press inquiries and image material:
Birgit Kinkeldey
Head of Communication
Phone: +49 421 218-57755
email: birgit.kinkeldeyprotect me ?!zarm.uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
