LISA optics model: early results

This note presents some of the optical modeling work performed at JPL and at Goddard in support of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) effort. The end-to-end optical model will be used to generate a synthetic data stream. The simulation will have the spacecraft moving in their respective orbits, with pointing of the spacecraft and station keeping about the proof masses accomplished using a control scheme, which minimizes the disturbance on the proof masses in the sensitive direction. The resulting data stream gives an indication of the magnitude of instrumental noise due to pointing jitter and motions of the spacecraft with respect to the proof masses. To reach this goal portions of the overall optical train have been modeled. Subsequent work will, as the modeling software and optical model evolve, combine these pieces into an integrated system.