These specialists came to support the Microscope space mission and to emphasize how important it is for scientific knowledge... Thibault Damour mentioned the theoretical developments aiming to reconcile gravitation with Quantum Theory, suggesting that the principle of equivalence could be violated at a level smaller that the best level currently tested (10 12), but which could be accessible to the Microscopemission, which is one thousand times more accurate (10 15)
The purpose of the ICE project is to test the principle of equivalence in the continuity of the Microscope space mission... All bodies, feathers like lead, have the same law of fall." The originality of ICE lies in the fact that the test is done on the microscopic level, directly on atoms (while the Microscopemission tests massive macroscopic objects)
The success of GOCE confirms the world leadership of ONERA in ultra sensitive accelerometry, for which the main applications are terrestrial gravity measurement (GRACE mission- with NASA, GOCE mission- with ESA) and fundamental physics experiments in space- with the CNES Microscopemission, whose payload is currently in the final phase of qualification
The MICROSCOPEmission has delivered its latest results and has confirmed the equivalence principle with unprecedented accuracy of 10 15. These results show that bodies fall in a vacuum with the same acceleration regardless of their composition or mass, meaning that the principle of equivalence. 07/04/2022
