I don’t know if the basic concept will work. But here is the mechanics I envision.
3 or more satellites way the hell out there. Positioned so they can be used for triangulation. Each one has a very high frequency, precise frequency generator. Earth or space based receiver station that can compare the frequencies. Of course there are complications for the final receiver station being able to get all the signals in sync. Maybe a second set of satellites closer to Earth, that can all see each other and the distant ones.
Aside from all the mechanics. Is my basic idea of a gravity wave causing a distortion of the frequency from a satellite valid? If so that distortion should appear in the frequency stream at different times, from different satellites. At such large distances maybe the timing can be used to point where the wave came from.
What generates the frequency? If it is a crystal or other micro sized oscillator, then the gravity wave would affect that already microscopic mass. I would think that would produce a really tiny frequency change?
Dennis
That sort of thing is why I am asking. Maybe the wave affects all the systems in a way that it shows no variance. Or the differences are too small to detect. But the amazing levels of precision involved in the current methods do give me hope that this scheme might work. The mechanics may be moot if the physics are impossible.
The wave travels at light speed. The frequency signal travels at light speed. The wave and frequency distortion arrive at the detector at the same time? Affecting the detector? Cancelling the effect of the distortion or signal shift?
I did some quick calculations that may or may not be accurate. From what I could find, the highest satellite frequency is about 60ghz. At the speed of light that works out to about 2 x 10^5 cycles per meter.
Virgo can detect movement of its mirrors that is 1/1000th the width of a proton which is a little less than 10^-15 meters. So you’re going to have to be able to detect variations in frequency that are quite small.
In principle, it’d work fine. The proposed LISA mission was a lot like that. But LISA would be a 2D array, not 3D: It would have three satellites in an equilateral triangle. There’s no way to get a constellation of satellites to stay in the same 3D shape, even approximately. Now, you could use a constellation that’s continually changing its 3D shape, but that would make the data analysis (already very difficult) even harder.
Looking at the LISA web page answered it. Didn’t know that was an active project. Thanks for pointing me there. Mentions things I never heard of / thought of. I did consider the problem of satellites out of a flat plane. But was more interested if the basic concept was just impossibly dumb. Apparently not.