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A new laser-ranged satellite for General Relativity and space geodesy: I. An introduction to the LARES2 space experiment

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Abstract.

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 experiment will be carried out by our international science team of experts in General Relativity, theoretical physics, space geodesy and aerospace engineering. The main objectives of the LARES 2 experiment are gravitational and fundamental physics, including accurate measurements of General Relativity, in particular a test of frame-dragging aimed at achieving an accuracy of a few parts in a thousand, i.e., aimed at improving by about an order of magnitude the present state-of-the-art and forthcoming tests of this general relativistic phenomenon. LARES 2 will also achieve determinations in space geodesy. LARES 2 is an improved version of the LAGEOS 3 experiment, proposed in 1984 to measure frame-dragging and analyzed in 1989 by a joint ASI and NASA study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dip. Ingegneria dell’Innovazione, Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy

    Ignazio Ciufolini

  2. Centro Fermi, Rome, Italy

    Ignazio Ciufolini, Antonio Paolozzi & Claudio Paris

  3. Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy

    Antonio Paolozzi & Giampiero Sindoni

  4. Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, University of Maryland, BC & NASA Goddard, Baltimore County, USA

    Erricos C. Pavlis

  5. Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany

    Rolf Koenig

  6. Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA

    John C. Ries

  7. Theory Group, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA

    Richard Matzner

  8. Center for Cosmology and Astrophysics, Alikhanian National Laboratory and Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia

    Vahe Gurzadyan

  9. Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Roger Penrose

  10. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

    David Rubincam

Authors
  1. Ignazio Ciufolini
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  2. Antonio Paolozzi
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  3. Erricos C. Pavlis
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  4. Giampiero Sindoni
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  5. Rolf Koenig
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  6. John C. Ries
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  7. Richard Matzner
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  8. Vahe Gurzadyan
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  9. Roger Penrose
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  10. David Rubincam
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  11. Claudio Paris
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Correspondence to Ignazio Ciufolini.

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Ciufolini, I., Paolozzi, A., Pavlis, E.C. et al. A new laser-ranged satellite for General Relativity and space geodesy: I. An introduction to the LARES2 space experiment. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 132, 336 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11635-1

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