{"id":161,"date":"2026-02-20T15:38:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T15:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lares-mission.com\/?page_id=161"},"modified":"2026-03-20T16:57:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T16:57:24","slug":"lares-2-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.lares-mission.com\/en\/lares-2-3\/","title":{"rendered":"LARES 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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LAser RElativity Satellite n. 2<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

LARES 2 is a satellite by the Italian Space Agency, launched on 13 July 2022 on the maiden flight of the Vega-C launch vehicle, following an agreement with ESA. The Laser RElativity Satellite No. 2 is the successor to the first LARES satellite, designed to improve the precision of measurements of the frame-dragging effect, generated by mass-energy currents such as the rotation of a massive body, as predicted by the theory of General Relativity. The second mission in the LARES series is in fact designed to reduce the measurement error to a few parts per thousand, improving the result obtained with the first satellite tenfold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Satellite
The LARES 2 satellite (Credits C. Paris<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Structure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Like its predecessor, LARES 2 is a passive satellite based on a monolithic metal structure. Its spherical shape and high mass-to-surface-area ratio minimise the effects of radiation pressure (both solar and from the Earth\u2019s albedo), atmospheric drag (which is minimal, given the altitude of approximately 6,000 km) and disturbances caused by thermal anisotropy effects on the satellite, such as the Yarkovsky effect.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Satellite Laser Ranging<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The position of LARES 2 is measured using the Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) technique by the network of stations belonging to the International Laser Ranging Service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The retroreflectors Cube Corner Reflectors<\/em> (CCR<\/em>) used on the LARES and LARES 2 satellites for laser ranging.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

LARES 2 is the first long-duration mission (excluding a few technological demonstation tests on smaller satellites) to use cube-corner reflectors (CCRs) with a diameter of 24.5 mm (1\u2033); furthermore, unlike LARES, the reflectors are COTS (Commercial Off-the-Shelf) units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The arrangement of the 303 reflectors across the spherical surface is innovative. The positions of the CCRs are not distributed evenly but according to an optimisation study inspired by \"Thomson problem\"<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combination of optimised dimensions and distribution of the CCRs makes it possible to significantly reduce errors in satellite position measurement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Orbit<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The mission relies on the specific combination of the orbits of the LAGEOS and LARES 2 satellites. The orbit of LARES 2 is circular; it has the same semi-major axis as the LAGEOS orbit but an additional inclination. In other words, the sum of the inclinations of the two orbital planes is 180\u00b0. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This allows the effects of classical gravitational disturbances caused by the even zonal harmonics of the Earth\u2019s gravitational field to be removed from the measurement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For further reading: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The science of LARES and LARES 2<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Features of the LARES 2 satellite.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cospar ID: 2208001<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Satellite Catalogue Number (NORAD): 53105<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SATELLITE<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
Radius<\/td>212 mm<\/td><\/tr>
Mass<\/td>297.5 kg<\/td><\/tr>
N. of retroreflectors (CCR)<\/td>303<\/td><\/tr>
Diameter of retroreflectors <\/td>24.5 mm (1\u2033)<\/td><\/tr>
Material<\/td>Lega di nichel – Inconel 718<\/td><\/tr>
Density<\/td>8193 kg\/m3<\/sup><\/td><\/tr>
ORBIT<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
Eccentricity<\/td>0.0<\/td><\/tr>
Apogee<\/td>5899 km<\/td><\/tr>
Inclination<\/td>70.16 \u00b0<\/td><\/tr>
Orbital period<\/td>225.36 minutes<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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LAser RElativity Satellite n. 2 LARES 2 \u00e8 un satellite dell\u2019Agenzia Spaziale Italiana lanciato il 13 luglio 2022 con il volo inaugurale del lanciatore Vega-C, grazie ad un accordo con ESA. Il Laser RElativity Satellite n. 2 \u00e8 il successore del primo satellite LARES, destinato a miglioreare la precisione della misura dell\u2019effetto di trascinamento dei […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-with-title","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-161","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t