Abstract
This paper presents an overview of the current technical status of STEP, the Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle. STEP was originally presented as a candidate for ESA’s M2 mission as a joint mission with NASA, and has since been studied as an M3 candidate, and under NASA as QuickSTEP and MiniSTEP. Studies especially during the last two years have resolved some long standing issues such as control of helium tide, improved the mission definition and error analysis, and have resulted in an improved baseline design which should be capable of comparing rates of fall to an accuracy approaching 10-18.
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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Lockerbie, N., Mester, J.C., Torii, R., Vitale, S., Worden, P.W. (2001). STEP: A Status Report. In: Lämmerzahl, C., Everitt, C.W.F., Hehl, F.W. (eds) Gyros, Clocks, Interferometers...: Testing Relativistic Graviy in Space. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 562. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-40988-2_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-40988-2_11
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