A new laser-ranged satellite for General Relativity and space geodesy: II. Monte Carlo simulations and covariance analyses of the LARES 2 experiment

Ciufolini, I., Pavlis, E.C., Sindoni, G. et al. A new laser-ranged satellite for General Relativity and space geodesy: II. Monte Carlo simulations and covariance analyses of the LARES 2 experiment. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 132, 337 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11636-0

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This is a pre-print of an article published in The European Physical Journal Plus. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11636-0.

Abstract

In the previous paper we have introduced the LARES 2 space experiment. The LARES 2 laser-ranged satellite is planned for a launch in 2019 with the new VEGA C launch vehicle of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), ESA and ELV. The main objectives of the LARES 2 experiment are accurate measurements of General Relativity, gravitational and fundamental physics and accurate determinations in space geodesy and geodynamics. In particular LARES 2 is aimed to achieve a very accurate test of frame-dragging, an intriguing phenomenon predicted by General Relativity. Here we report the results of Monte Carlo simulations and covariance analyses fully confirming an error budget of a few parts in one thousand in the measurement of frame-dragging with LARES 2 as calculated in our previous paper.