Microscope – A space mission to test the equivalence principle

MICROSCOPE is a ESA/CNES space mission for testing the validity of the weak equivalence principle. The mission’s goal is to determine the Eotvos parameter η with an accuracy of 10−15 . The French space agency CNES is responsible for designing the satellite which is developed and produced within the Myriade series. The satellite’s payload T–SAGE (Twin Space Accelerometer for Gravitation Experimentation) consists of two high–precision capacitive differential accelerometers and is developed and built by the French institute ONERA. As a member of the MICROSCOPE performance team, the German department ZARM performs free fall tests of the MICROSCOPE differential accelerometers at the Bremen drop tower. The project’s concepts and current results of the free fall tests are shortly presented.