Design of a piezo drive for the beam alignment system of the LISA space mission

Lisa (laser interferometer space antenna) is the upcoming space mission to detect and measure gravitational waves in space using interferometry. Detection and analysis of these waves have several applications in natural sciences. The Lisa system will have three mirrors in an equilateral triangle form where each arm-length is millions of kilometers apart. A laser reflects through each mirror, and the distance between them is precisely monitored to detect a passing gravitational wave. My project aims to design and develop a precision laser alignment system for LISA. For this objective, piezo-driven motors would be designed and developed due to their high-precision actuation. First, a prototype design would be fabricated to test its working on earth. Later, a modified and improved system would be developed for the actual mission.