Space scientists get £1.7m funding

Scientists in Scotland will work on the world’s first ever Gravitational Wave Space Observatory, which will study ripples in space and time, thanks to an initial £1.7 million of funding from the UK Space Agency.

The UK, through the work of the University of Glasgow’s Institute for Gravitational Research and the Science and the Technology Facilities Council’s UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) in Edinburgh, will develop the optical benches for the European Space Agency’s LISA mission (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna).

These optical benches are at the core of the laser interferometry measurement system, the key technology needed to detect gravitational waves. The space observatory, planned for launch in the 2030s, will allow scientists to study these mysterious waves, improving our knowledge of the beginning, evolution and structure of the universe.

It will build on the success the LISA Pathfinder mission, which in 2016 successfully demonstrated the technology needed for LISA.

It will also build on work already taking place here on Earth where UK researchers, including those from the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the University of Glasgow, are contributing to the ongoing LIGO project that made the first detection of gravitational waves back in 2015.