Line of sight calibration for the laser ranging interferometer on-board the GRACE Follow-On mission: on-ground experimental validation.

The laser ranging interferometer (LRI) on board of the GRACE follow-on spacecraft, launched in May 2018, is the first laser interferometer to perform an inter-satellite range measurement. It is designed for ranging noise levels of 80 nm Hz for frequencies above 20 mHz, i.e.

Readout for intersatellite laser interferometry: Measuring low frequency phase fluctuations of high-frequency signals with microradian precision.

Precision phase readout of optical beat note signals is one of the core techniques required for intersatellite laser interferometry. Future space based gravitational wave detectors like eLISA require such a readout over a wide range of MHz frequencies, due to orbit induced Doppler shifts, with a precision in the order of μrad/√Hz at frequencies between 0.1 mHz and 1 Hz.