Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2017) 132: 337
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11636-0

Regular Article

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

¹ Dip. Ingegneria dell’Innovazione, Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy
² Centro Fermi, Rome, Italy
³ Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, University of Maryland, BC & NASA Goddard, Baltimore County, USA
⁴ Scuola di Ingegneria Aerospaziale and DIAEE, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy
⁵ Center for Space Research, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA
⁶ Theory Group, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA
⁷ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany

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

Received: 17 July 2017
Accepted: 24 July 2017
Published online: 4 August 2017

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.