Status of MICROSCOPE, a mission to test the Equivalence Principle in Space

J. Bergé (1) , P. Touboul (2) , M. Rodrigues (1)

1 ONERA - The French Aerospace Lab [Châtillon]
2 ONERA - The French Aerospace Lab [Palaiseau]

MICROSCOPE is a French Space Agency mission that aims to test the Weak Equivalence Principle in space down to an accuracy of 10^−15 . This is two orders of magnitude better than the current constraints, which will allow us to test General Relativity as well as theories beyond General Relativity which predict a possible Weak Equivalence Principle violation below 10^−13 . In this communication, we describe the MICROSCOPE mission, its measurement principle and instrument, and we give an update on its status. After a successful instrument's commissioning, MICROSCOPE is on good tracks for its launch, expected in 2016.

Keywords: GRAVITATION; ACCELEROMETRE ELECTROSTATIQUE ULTRASENSIBLE

Domains: Physics [physics]; General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology [gr-qc]

J. Bergé, P. Touboul, M. Rodrigues. Status of MICROSCOPE, a mission to test the Equivalence Principle in Space. 10th International LISA Symposium, May 2014, GAINESVILLE, United States. ⟨hal-01070586⟩