Current LISA spacecraft design

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, a space based gravitational wave detector, uses laser metrology to measure distance fluctuations between proof masses aboard three spacecraft. LISA is unique from a mission design perspective in that the three spacecraft and their associated operations form one distributed science instrument, unlike more conventional missions where an instrument is a component of an individual spacecraft. The design of the LISA spacecraft is also tightly coupled to the design and requirements of the scientific payload; for this reason it is often referred to as a 'sciencecraft'. Here we describe some of the unique features of the LISA spacecraft design that help create the quiet environment necessary for gravitational wave observations.