GRACE Follow-on OGSE and testing

Kurzfassung

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) has been mapping the Earth's gravity field changes since 2002 and now is at the end of its life-time. Due to the importance of the GRACE satellites, a follow-on mission will be launched in 2017, which will include a Laser Ranging Interferometer (LRI) as a technological demonstrator. The LRI shares many technologies and requirements with the LISA mission and will be the first inter-satellite laser link in space. This poster describes the optical ground support equipment (OGSE) needed to test the LRI key subsystems and the results of different test campaigns with engineering model and flight model hardware.