What should we do in space? NASA has bet the farm on the International Space Station, a giant orbiting Lego set where astronauts can play Mommies and Daddies, practice sharing and become zero-g toilet trained. Almost everyone else wants to do something useful.<\/p>\n
So a bunch of chief eggheads from the world of physics have drawn up a wishlist of space missions to look for new physics and test the old stuff to breaking point. Here’s a few of the gems:<\/p>\n
SpaceTime<\/strong><\/a>: a mission to fly atomic clocks in a highly elliptical orbit around the Sun to see if the fine structure (or other fundamental) constant varies. Could also test the Equivalence principle<\/p>\n
Inverse Square Law Experiment in Space<\/strong><\/a> (ISLES) does what it say on the tin by bouncing laser beams off the Moon and Mars to test whether gravity really follows an inverse square law at large distances<\/p>\n
The Laser Astrometric Test of Relativity<\/strong><\/a> (LATOR) would use laser interferometry to measure the non-Euclidean geometry of giant light triangle around the Sun. The mission would test whether the infamous evidence in favour of dark matter could be explained instead by a modified theory of gravity<\/p>\n
LISA<\/strong><\/a> (the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) measures gravity waves using a constellation of laser interferometers<\/p>\n