Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2015) 130: 133
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2015-15133-2

Regular Article

Preliminary orbital analysis of the LARES space experiment

¹ Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Innovazione, Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy
² Centro Fermi, Rome, Italy
³ Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy
⁴ Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center (GEST), University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA
⁵ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany
⁶ Center for Space Research, University of Texas, Austin, USA
⁷ Center for Cosmology and Astrophysics, Alikhanian National Laboratory, Yerevan, Armenia
⁸ Theory Group, University of Texas, Austin, USA
⁹ Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

^* e-mail: ignazio.ciufolini@gmail.com

Received: 30 June 2015
Revised: 5 July 2015
Accepted: 7 July 2015
Published online: 20 July 2015

Abstract

The LARES satellite was successfully launched in 2012 for tests of General Relativity and gravitational physics including the accurate measurement of frame-dragging. It is currently very well observed all over the world by the stations of the International Laser Ranging Service. Its preliminary orbital analyses show that LARES behaves as the best artificial massive test particle today available in the solar system, providing an optimal approximation to the time-like geodesic motion of General Relativity. Furthermore, on the basis of a test using almost three years of observations of LARES, we concluded that LARES, together with the LAGEOS and LAGEOS 2 satellites, provides excellent preliminary results for testing General Relativity.