Abstract. The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, a space-based gravitational wave detector, uses laser metrology to measure distance fluctuations between proof masses aboard three spacecraft. The total acceleration disturbance to each proof mass is required to be below 3 × 10⁻¹⁵ m s⁻² Hz^−1/2 at 0.1 mHz. Optical path length variations on each optical bench must be kept below about 40 pm Hz^−1/2 over 1–100 mHz. Noise due to spacecraft thermal distortions, temperature difference variations across the proof mass housing and other thermal effects are expected to be significant contributors to these noise budgets. The LISA Integrated Modelling team developed a detailed thermal model that is currently being used to drive the design of LISA. Several new thermal analysis techniques are also being developed in order to achieve model accuracies to LISA levels. We present here an overview of the LISA thermal design and modelling efforts. The latest thermal results calculated using the current baseline design of LISA are also discussed.

PACS numbers: 04.80.Nn, 24.10.Pa

Print publication: Issue 10 (21 May 2005)
Received 1 November 2004, in final form 2 March 2005
Published 28 April 2005