This project consists of three spacecrafts flying around the Sun, 5 million kilometres far from each other. Their aim is to detect low frequency gravitational waves and  distortions of space-time generated when a massive body is accelerated or disturbed. Each instrument has a gold and platinum cube inside, flying free in microgravity conditions. Faint variations in cube position reveal the passage of a gravitational wave. This ESA/NASA mission will be launched in 2018. It’s an extremely complicated and ambitious mission that will open new frontiers on physics and global universe knowledge. New technologies and innovative materials required for LISA mission will be validated during the ESA Mission LISA Path Finder (SMART-2 Small Mission for Advanced Research in Technology) scheduled for 2012. CGS has been Prime Contractor of ESA for the development of the LISA Inertial Sensor Engineering Model and is Prime Contractor of ASI for the team developing the LTP ISS (Inertial Sensor Subsystem).

More Info	Inertial Sensor	LISA Technology Package