September 1, 2023

Organization

Supervision of the Microscope mission is under the responsibility of a CNES-ESA-ONERA-DLR-INSU-GEOAZUR-ZARM Steering Committee.

The Principal Investigator is Pierre Touboul (ONERA).

CNES had overall responsibility for system development and satellite construction. It provided 80% of project funding and acted as prime contractor in charge of spacecraft bus development, satellite integration and testing up to launch, and construction and operation of the Control Centre.

ONERA was responsible for development of the accelerometer instrument and the Scientific Mission Centre (SMC) and coordinates exploitation of mission science data.

The Géoazur laboratory (Côte d'Azur Observatory and CNRS) is involved in preparing the mission work plan and prepares science data processing in collaboration with ONERA.
The European Space Agency supplied the microthruster system.
DLR funded the materials for the instrument's proof masses and the German contributions of PTB and ZARM.

PTB, the German metrology laboratory, was in charge of machining and metrology of the test masses

ZARM was involved in ground validation of instrument performance by conducting preliminary tests in its drop tower.
The performance group under PI responsibility is composed of members of CNES, ONERA, Géoazur and ZARM.