Technology Development for STEP, the Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle
John Mester
Stanford University
mester@relgyro.stanford.edu
Additional authors: the STEP collaboration
STEP is designed to test the Equivalence Principle, a cornerstone of General Relativity, to a precision of 1 part in 10^18, an improvement of five orders of magnitude beyond the present state of the art. The international STEP collaboration is pursuing a development plan to improve and verify the technology readiness of key systems. We will discuss recent advances including precision manufacture, superconducting thin film patterning, SQUID detection systems, magnetic shielding, charge control, aerogel helium tide mitigation, and drag free control.
