LISA Pathfinder - Spacecraft Design

Spacecraft Design

LISA Pathfinder is being built by EADS Astrium Ltd. of Stevenage, UK under contract to the European Space Agency. It will carry a European 'LISA Test Package' comprising inertial sensors, interferometer and associated instrumentation as well as two drag-free control systems: a European one using field emission electric propulsion (FEEP) thrusters, and a US-built 'Disturbance Reduction System' using slightly different sensors and colloid thrusters that use ionised droplets of a colloid accelerated in an electric field. The colloid thruster system was built by Busek and delivered to JPL for integration with the spacecraft.

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