The day in conversation for 2026-10-19

The discussion: Vera: That architectural choice of using two different types of Corner-Cube Retroreflectors specifically to address varying orbital regimes seems crucial; what does that difference in response look like when we map the illumination patterns against the expected strain signatures? Jocelyn: I was looking at how CCR1 and CCR2 behave individually under those conditions, but I’m not sure if the reduced-order model is capturing enough non-linear coupling between them, especially when one retroreflector is near maximum illumination while the other isn't. Subrahmanyan: From my side, I’m more concerned with the sensitivity analysis—specifically how varying the spacecraft diameter impacts those dihedral angle offsets; if we change that parameter by just a fraction, does it shift the predicted detection threshold significantly? Vera: Yes, but I wonder if the sensitivity analysis has adequately accounted for atmospheric path fluctuations in this micro hertz regime; how stable is that measurement when the illumination changes across such disparate orbital regimes? Jocelyn: The paper mentions testing different wavelengths, and I don't know if they focused enough on spectral leakage when integrating those optical responses into the overall noise budget calculation. Subrahmanyan: That spectral leakage would definitely complicate the interpretation of a detected signal,