OPENSPACE 24: The Future of Space Exploration | Page 45

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Paul McNamara, LISA
Pathfinder project scientist,
picks the mission’s most
memorable moments:
Team Collaboration. “One of the most
memorable moments was the wonderful team
collaboration that happened throughout the
mission. During development phase we had
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many teams working on the mission: the ESA
team, the industry building the spacecraft, and
many other independent bodies performing
different parts of the mission. But then two
weeks before launch, you are just one big
team, striving for the final product. We had a
great atmosphere. It was wonderful to work
with these people for years.”
Freely floating in space. “Another memorable
moment was when we released the two
identical gold-platinum cubes sitting inside
the spacecraft, which had to be locked during
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launch so that they wouldn’t shake inside the
spacecraft. It was a very stressful moment,
and when we saw it happening, it was just
wonderful. And then something that was also
stunning was the fact that we measured how
the small gold-platinum cubes were completely
freefalling from the spacecraft without any
external forces on the very first day.”
Laser science. “My background is in laser
interferometry, and for me personally it was huge
04
when we turned on the laser system. It is not fair
to say that it went well, because it performed
300 times better than the requirements. And
the fact that we were able to measure that
from space was outstanding. It’s more than
100 times better than ever measured on the
ground. That was really amazing.”
01. Stefano Vitale sends the last commands to LISA
Pathfinder.
02. LISA Pathfinder flight control team.
03. LISA Pathfinder team.
Credit: ESA.
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