Claudio Paris

A test of general relativity using the LARES and LAGEOS satellites and a GRACE Earth gravity model

We present a test of general relativity, the measurement of the Earth’s dragging of inertial frames. Our result is obtained using about 3.5 years of laser-ranged observations of the LARES, LAGEOS, and LAGEOS 2 laser-ranged satellites together with the Earth gravity field model GGM05S produced by the space geodesy mission GRACE. We measure

Fundamental Physics and General Relativity with the LARES and LAGEOS satellites

\mu = (0.994 \pm 0.002) \pm 0.05

The Contribution of LARES to Global Climate Change Studies With Geodetic Satellites

μ=(0.994±0.002)±0.05, where

Use of FBG sensors for health monitoring of pipelines

\mu

Smart Disaster Mitigation in Italy: A Brief Overview on the State of the Art

μ is the Earth’s dragging of inertial frames normalized to its general relativity value, 0.002 is the 1-sigma formal error and 0.05 is our preliminary estimate of systematic error mainly due to the uncertainties in the Earth gravity model GGM05S. Our result is in agreement with the prediction of general relativity.

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

LARES (LAser RElativity Satellite), is an Italian Space Agency (ASI) mission to be launched beginning of 2012 with the new European launch vehicle, VEGA; the launch opportunity was provided by the European Space Agency (ESA). LARES is a laser ranged satellite; it will be launched into a nearly circular orbit, with an altitude of 1450 km and an inclination of 69.5 degrees. The goal of the mission is the measurement of the Lense-Thirring effect with an uncertainty of few percent; such a small uncertainty will be achieved using LARES data together with data from the LAGEOS I (NASA) and LAGEOS II (NASA and ASI) satellites, and because GRACE mission (NASA-CSR and DLR-GFZ) is improving Earths gravity field models. This paper describes LARES experiment along with the principal error sources affecting the measurement. Furthermore, some engineering aspects of the mission, in particular the structure and materials of the satellite (designed in order to minimize the non-gravitational perturbations), are described.