Biography:  Domenico Gerardi received his Master of Science (summa cum laude) in Aeronautics & Astronautics from the University of Pisa (Italy), with a thesis on the laser interferometer for LISA Pathfinder. He was also an external scholar in Physics at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa).

In 2004 he joined EADS Astrium in the Science Missions and Systems Department. Since then he worked on LISA Pathfinder (drag-free and attitude control system, experiment controller, experiment performance) and LISA.

He is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Stuttgart (Germany), with a thesis on alternative gravitational reference sensor concepts for LISA, and is currently a visiting researcher at HEPL working on a trade study for the LISA payload. His main research interests are GW observatories and drag-free missions.

Abstract:        Future drag-free missions for space-based experiments in gravitational physics require a Gravitational Reference Sensor (GRS) with extremely demanding sensing and disturbance reduction requirements.

A GRS with a cubical proof mass is the current baseline for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and has reached a high level of maturity. Nevertheless, several promising concepts have been proposed with potential applications also beyond LISA. The general motivation is to exploit the possibility of achieving improved performance, and, ultimately understand how low acceleration noise can be pushed with realistic designs for future missions.

I will refer to LISA but discuss aspects of disturbance reduction systems that can largely and generally apply to future drag-free missions. I will discuss disturbance reduction requirements for LISA, describe two different payload designs, compare expected strain sensitivity in the low-frequency part of the LISA band (dominated by acceleration noise) and ultimately discuss advantages and disadvantages of each of these two concepts in achieving disturbance reduction for LISA (and beyond).