The LISA mission, a joint venture between NASA and ESA, will investigate gravitational waves using a suite of laser-equipped spacecraft. A prototype telescope has been discovered, marking an important step towards the mission’s expected launch in the 2030s.

NASA unveiled a full-scale prototype for six telescopes; This marks a major step towards detecting gravitational waves from space within the next decade. These waves, or ripples in space-time, are created by cosmic events such as black hole mergers.

This project, known as the Laser Interferometric Space Antenna (LISA), is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. LISA will use lasers to measure extremely precise distances (down to picometers, or trillionths of a meter) between three spacecraft placed in a giant triangle stretching about 1.6 million miles (2.5 million kilometers) on each side.

The LISA (Laser Interferometric Space Antenna) mission is led by ESA (European Space Agency) in partnership with NASA to detect gravitational waves using lasers to measure precise distances (down to picometers, or trillionths of a meter) between three deployed spacecraft. In a massive configuration larger than the Sun. The length of each side of the triangle will be almost 1.6 million miles, or 2.5 million kilometers.

“Twin telescopes on each spacecraft will both transmit and receive infrared laser beams to track their satellites, and NASA is providing all six of them for the LISA mission,” said Ryan DeRosa, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. Called Maryland’s “Telescope Engineering Development Unit, the prototype will guide us as we work to build hardware for flight.”

The Engineering Development Unit telescope, manufactured and assembled by L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York, arrived at Goddard in May. The main mirror is coated with gold to better reflect infrared lasers and reduce heat loss from the surface exposed to the cold field; because the telescope will work best when the temperature is close to room temperature.

The prototype is made entirely of amber-colored glass ceramic called Zerodur, produced by Schott in Mainz, Germany. This material is widely used for telescope mirrors and other applications requiring high precision because its shape changes little over a wide temperature range. Launch of the LISA mission is planned for the mid-2030s.