The Pioneer Anomaly Options

[remcook]

http://www.planetary.org/news/2005/pioneer_anomaly_faq.html

The planetary society may be checking it out...

The Planetary Society has committed to raise the funds to preserve the priceless Pioneer data from destruction.


After years of analysis, but without a final conclusion, NASA, astonishingly, gave up trying to solve the "Pioneer Anomaly" and provided no funds to analyze the data. The Pioneer data exists on a few hundred ancient 7- and 9-track magnetic tapes, which can only be read on "antique" outdated computers. The agency is going to scrap, literally demolish, the only computers able to access and process that data in the next few months!

[edstrick]

You know what the problem is with make-believe paranoia?

(looking around suspiciously...)

YOU'RE PROBABLY RIGHT!

[Guest_Richard Trigaux_*]

You know what the problem is with make-believe paranoia?

(looking around suspiciously...)

YOU'RE PROBABLY RIGHT!

AAAAAARRRGGHH

[ljk4-1]

Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0504367
From: Gary Page [view email]
Date (v1): Sun, 17 Apr 2005 17:04:48 GMT (32kb)
Date (revised v2): Sat, 1 Oct 2005 13:46:27 GMT (43kb)

Utilizing Minor Planets to Assess the Gravitational Field in the Outer Solar System

Authors: Gary L. Page, David S. Dixon, John F. Wallin

Categories: astro-ph

Comments: Added substantial new material dealing with ability to observed effects addressed in paper

The twin Pioneer spacecraft have been tracked for over thirty years as they headed out of the solar system. After passing a heliocentric distance of 20 AU, both exhibited a systematic error in their trajectories that can be interpreted as a constant acceleration towards the sun and that has come to be known as the Pioneer Effect.

Spacecraft systematics are its most likely explanation, but there have been no convincing arguments that that is the case. The alternative, that the Pioneer Effect represents a real phenomenon, is very appealing for many reasons. What is lacking is a means of measuring the effect, its variation, its potential anisotropies, and its region of influence.

We show that minor planets provide an observational vehicle for investigating the gravitational field in the outer solar system, and thus provide a means of measuring the Pioneer Effect and potentially to either support or refute its existence as a real phenomenon. Minor planets can be used for this purpose because they have a large mass and are large and bright enough to be observed for useful intervals.

Thus, even if the Pioneer Effect does not represent a new physical phenomenon, minor planets can be used to probe the gravitational field in the outer solar system. Since there are very few intermediate range tests of gravity at the multiple AU distance scale, this is a worthwhile endeavor in its own right. It might even be possible to differentiate between the predictions of alternative explanations for the Pioneer Effect.

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0504367

[ljk4-1]

Paper: astro-ph/0506281

replaced with revised version Mon, 24 Oct 2005 20:43:50 GMT (41kb)

Title: Analytic Gravitational-Force Calculations for Models of the Kuiper Belt,
with Application to the Pioneer Anomaly

Authors: Michael Martin Nieto

Comments: 11 pages, 8 figures, final corrections for publication

Report-no: LA-UR-05-4414

Journal-ref: Phys. Rev D 72 (2005) 083004

We use analytic techniques to study the gravitational force that would be produced by different Kuiper-Belt mass distributions. In particular, we study the 3-dimensional rings (and wedge) whose densities vary as the inverse of the distance, as a constant, as the inverse-squared of the distance, as well as that which varies according to the Boss-Peale model. These analytic calculations yield physical insight into the physics of the problem. They also verify that physically viable models of this type can produce neither the magnitude nor the constancy of the Pioneer anomaly.

\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0506281 , 41kb)

[ljk4-1]

Paper (*cross-listing*): gr-qc/0511026

Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 02:40:04 GMT (162kb)

Title: Gravitational solution to the Pioneer 10/11 anomaly

Authors: J. R. Brownstein and J. W. Moffat

Comments: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 table
\\
A fully relativistic modified gravitational theory including a fifth force
skew symmetric field is fitted to the Pioneer 10/11 anomalous acceleration. The
theory allows for a variation with distance scales of the gravitational
constant G, the fifth force skew symmetric field coupling strength omega and
the mass of the skew symmetric field mu=1/lambda. A fit to the available
anomalous acceleration data for the Pioneer 10/11 spacecraft is obtained for a
phenomenological representation of the "running" constants and values of the
associated parameters are shown to exist that are consistent with fifth force
experimental bounds. The fit to the acceleration data is consistent with all
current satellite, laser ranging and observations for the inner planets.

\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0511026 , 162kb)