The LISA DFACS: Overview of the Control Design Activities for the Drag-Free Mode

This paper presents the main design steps for the drag-free control of the next LISA mission. This work was carried out during the feasibility study Assessment and Preliminary Prototyping of a drag free control system for the L3 gravity wave observatory supported by the European Space Agency. After a brief introduction about the spacecraft, the main modelling results are reported. Functional and performance requirements are shown and then the control architecture and the H-inf mixed sensitivity control design are discussed. Finally, simulation results are presented.