Design Aspects Of A Laser Gravitational Wave Detector In Space

Some of the optical and mechanical aspects of a proposed laser gravitational wave antenna in space are discussed briefly. The proposed concept consists of a free-mass antenna with the test masses separated by 10⁶ km. A laser heterodyne technique is used to measure the distance change between test masses resulting from gravitational wave interaction. The proposed scheme appears to offer the necessary sensitivity to detect gravitational radiation from binary stars predicted by General Relativity Theory.