Kelly Holley-Bockelmann

So they are moving around in what is called geodesics or orbits that are going around the sun.

And naturally, they will map spacetime.

And you have three of them.

And so they are three independent orbits in a triangle that kind of tumble.

The way in which you detect gravitational waves is by looking for deviations from the lengths of the triangles.

And that is because a gravitational wave has passed by, not because you've oriented them or moved them in some way.

Yep.

That's the entire principle.

Yeah.

I think what you're saying is you want to make sure that you're always communicating between the three different nodes of the triangle.

Is that what you're asking?

Definitely want that to happen.

So you're always sending a laser beam from one part of the triangle, one little constellation piece to the other.

And that's what the LISA spacecraft is.

It's this constellation of three nodes and lasers shining between them.

Exactly what they're doing.

What you're doing is you're timing how long it takes to go from one node to the other and back again.

Yeah.

How do you even know that?

I'm sorry.