Investigation of the in-flight anomalies of the LISA Pathfinder Test Mass release mechanism

The LISA Pathfinder mission was flown to test some key technologies for the in-flight detection of gravitational waves. The mechanism developed to initialise the science phase, releasing the test mass into a geodesic trajectory, produced unexpected test mass states, requiring dedicated in-flight and on-ground test campaigns. Due to the limited information available from the telemetry, the analysis of the results required a combination of experimental and analytical approaches. A dynamic model of the release mechanism, integrated by an impact model, is developed to explain the in-flight test results. The proposed interpretation of the mechanism anomalies may provide useful guidelines for the design and development of the flight units for the forthcoming LISA mission. (C) 2021 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.