{"id":91772,"date":"2025-06-01T11:05:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T11:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/?p=91772"},"modified":"2025-06-01T11:05:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T11:05:22","slug":"the-experiment-will-employ-a-trio-of-spacecraft-flying-in-formation-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-experiment-will-employ-a-trio-of-spacecraft-flying-in-formation-i\/","title":{"rendered":"“The experiment will employ a trio of spacecraft flying in formation i"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The experiment will employ a trio of spacecraft flying in formation in the shape of an equilateral triangle that has sides one million kilometres long, with lasers shining between the craft.” The experiment in question refers to<\/p>\n

[amp_mcq option1=”Voyager-2″ option2=”New Horizons” option3=”LISA Pathfinder” option4=”Evolved LISA” correct=”option4″]<\/p>\n

\n
\n
This question was previously asked in<\/div>\n
UPSC IAS – 2020<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Download PDF<\/a>Attempt Online<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nThe description refers to the Evolved LISA mission.
\n<\/section>\n
\nThe experiment described involves three spacecraft flying in a specific formation (equilateral triangle with sides measuring one million kilometers) and using lasers shining between them. This configuration and method are designed to detect gravitational waves by precisely measuring the tiny changes in the distances between the spacecraft caused by passing gravitational waves.
\nVoyager-2 and New Horizons are spacecraft designed for planetary exploration, not gravitational wave detection.
\nLISA Pathfinder was a single spacecraft technology demonstrator mission for the LISA concept, proving the feasibility of housing free-falling test masses and measuring their motion with extreme precision, but it did not involve three separate spacecraft measuring distances over millions of kilometers.
\nEvolved LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) is a planned space mission by ESA and NASA that will consist of three spacecraft forming an equilateral triangle with sides approximately 2.5 million kilometers long. It will use laser interferometry between the spacecraft to detect gravitational waves in the millihertz frequency range, which are expected from sources like merging supermassive black holes and binaries of compact objects in our galaxy. The description in the question, while giving slightly different side length (one million km vs 2.5 million km), accurately captures the core concept of the Evolved LISA mission design for gravitational wave detection in space.
\n<\/section>\n
\nGround-based gravitational wave detectors like LIGO and Virgo operate on Earth and are sensitive to higher frequency gravitational waves. Space-based detectors like LISA are necessary to detect lower frequency gravitational waves that cannot be observed from the ground due to terrestrial noise.
\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The experiment will employ a trio of spacecraft flying in formation in the shape of an equilateral triangle that has sides one million kilometres long, with lasers shining between the craft.” The experiment in question refers to [amp_mcq option1=”Voyager-2″ option2=”New Horizons” option3=”LISA Pathfinder” option4=”Evolved LISA” correct=”option4″] This question was previously asked in UPSC IAS – … <\/p>\n

Detailed Solution“The experiment will employ a trio of spacecraft flying in formation i<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1092],"tags":[1288,1198],"class_list":["post-91772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-upsc-ias","tag-1288","tag-space-technology","no-featured-image-padding"],"yoast_head":"\n"The experiment will employ a trio of spacecraft flying in formation i<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The description refers to the Evolved LISA mission. The experiment described involves three spacecraft flying in a specific formation (equilateral triangle with sides measuring one million kilometers) and using lasers shining between them. This configuration and method are designed to detect gravitational waves by precisely measuring the tiny changes in the distances between the spacecraft caused by passing gravitational waves. Voyager-2 and New Horizons are spacecraft designed for planetary exploration, not gravitational wave detection. LISA Pathfinder was a single spacecraft technology demonstrator mission for the LISA concept, proving the feasibility of housing free-falling test masses and measuring their motion with extreme precision, but it did not involve three separate spacecraft measuring distances over millions of kilometers. Evolved LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) is a planned space mission by ESA and NASA that will consist of three spacecraft forming an equilateral triangle with sides approximately 2.5 million kilometers long. It will use laser interferometry between the spacecraft to detect gravitational waves in the millihertz frequency range, which are expected from sources like merging supermassive black holes and binaries of compact objects in our galaxy. The description in the question, while giving slightly different side length (one million km vs 2.5 million km), accurately captures the core concept of the Evolved LISA mission design for gravitational wave detection in space.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-experiment-will-employ-a-trio-of-spacecraft-flying-in-formation-i\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""The experiment will employ a trio of spacecraft flying in formation i\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The description refers to the Evolved LISA mission. The experiment described involves three spacecraft flying in a specific formation (equilateral triangle with sides measuring one million kilometers) and using lasers shining between them. This configuration and method are designed to detect gravitational waves by precisely measuring the tiny changes in the distances between the spacecraft caused by passing gravitational waves. Voyager-2 and New Horizons are spacecraft designed for planetary exploration, not gravitational wave detection. LISA Pathfinder was a single spacecraft technology demonstrator mission for the LISA concept, proving the feasibility of housing free-falling test masses and measuring their motion with extreme precision, but it did not involve three separate spacecraft measuring distances over millions of kilometers. Evolved LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) is a planned space mission by ESA and NASA that will consist of three spacecraft forming an equilateral triangle with sides approximately 2.5 million kilometers long. It will use laser interferometry between the spacecraft to detect gravitational waves in the millihertz frequency range, which are expected from sources like merging supermassive black holes and binaries of compact objects in our galaxy. The description in the question, while giving slightly different side length (one million km vs 2.5 million km), accurately captures the core concept of the Evolved LISA mission design for gravitational wave detection in space.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-experiment-will-employ-a-trio-of-spacecraft-flying-in-formation-i\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MCQ and Quiz for Exams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-01T11:05:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"rawan239\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"rawan239\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"The experiment will employ a trio of spacecraft flying in formation i","description":"The description refers to the Evolved LISA mission. The experiment described involves three spacecraft flying in a specific formation (equilateral triangle with sides measuring one million kilometers) and using lasers shining between them. This configuration and method are designed to detect gravitational waves by precisely measuring the tiny changes in the distances between the spacecraft caused by passing gravitational waves. Voyager-2 and New Horizons are spacecraft designed for planetary exploration, not gravitational wave detection. LISA Pathfinder was a single spacecraft technology demonstrator mission for the LISA concept, proving the feasibility of housing free-falling test masses and measuring their motion with extreme precision, but it did not involve three separate spacecraft measuring distances over millions of kilometers. Evolved LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) is a planned space mission by ESA and NASA that will consist of three spacecraft forming an equilateral triangle with sides approximately 2.5 million kilometers long. It will use laser interferometry between the spacecraft to detect gravitational waves in the millihertz frequency range, which are expected from sources like merging supermassive black holes and binaries of compact objects in our galaxy. The description in the question, while giving slightly different side length (one million km vs 2.5 million km), accurately captures the core concept of the Evolved LISA mission design for gravitational wave detection in space.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-experiment-will-employ-a-trio-of-spacecraft-flying-in-formation-i\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"The experiment will employ a trio of spacecraft flying in formation i","og_description":"The description refers to the Evolved LISA mission. The experiment described involves three spacecraft flying in a specific formation (equilateral triangle with sides measuring one million kilometers) and using lasers shining between them. This configuration and method are designed to detect gravitational waves by precisely measuring the tiny changes in the distances between the spacecraft caused by passing gravitational waves. Voyager-2 and New Horizons are spacecraft designed for planetary exploration, not gravitational wave detection. LISA Pathfinder was a single spacecraft technology demonstrator mission for the LISA concept, proving the feasibility of housing free-falling test masses and measuring their motion with extreme precision, but it did not involve three separate spacecraft measuring distances over millions of kilometers. Evolved LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) is a planned space mission by ESA and NASA that will consist of three spacecraft forming an equilateral triangle with sides approximately 2.5 million kilometers long. It will use laser interferometry between the spacecraft to detect gravitational waves in the millihertz frequency range, which are expected from sources like merging supermassive black holes and binaries of compact objects in our galaxy. The description in the question, while giving slightly different side length (one million km vs 2.5 million km), accurately captures the core concept of the Evolved LISA mission design for gravitational wave detection in space.","og_url":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-experiment-will-employ-a-trio-of-spacecraft-flying-in-formation-i\/","og_site_name":"MCQ and Quiz for Exams","article_published_time":"2025-06-01T11:05:22+00:00","author":"rawan239","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"rawan239","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-experiment-will-employ-a-trio-of-spacecraft-flying-in-formation-i\/","url":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/the-experiment-will-employ-a-trio-of-spacecraft-flying-in-formation-i\/","name":"\"The experiment will employ a trio of spacecraft flying in formation i","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-06-01T11:05:22+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-01T11:05:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/exam.pscnotes.com\/mcq\/#\/schema\/person\/5807dafeb27d2ec82344d6cbd6c3d209"},"description":"The description refers to the Evolved LISA mission. The experiment described involves three spacecraft flying in a specific formation (equilateral triangle with sides measuring one million kilometers) and using lasers shining between them. This configuration and method are designed to detect gravitational waves by precisely measuring the tiny changes in the distances between the spacecraft caused by passing gravitational waves. Voyager-2 and New Horizons are spacecraft designed for planetary exploration, not gravitational wave detection. LISA Pathfinder was a single spacecraft technology demonstrator mission for the LISA concept, proving the feasibility of housing free-falling test masses and measuring their motion with extreme precision, but it did not involve three separate spacecraft measuring distances over millions of kilometers. 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