A Mission to Test the Pioneer Anomaly: Estimating the Main Systematic Effects

Bertolami, Orfeu; Páramos, Jorge

doi:10.1142/s0218271807011000

Cited by 22 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…On the other hand, in the solar system and its neighborhood, the Pioneer anomaly, whether a real effect unrelated with systematic effects (see e.g. [35] and references therein), suggests that a E = a Pio = (8.5 ± 1.3) × 10 −10 m/s 2 . Interestingly, our approach allows for a unified explanation for these two problems and can account for the fact that the characteristic acceleration of each class of observations is somewhat different.…”

Section: The Acceleration Law In F (R) Gravitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Extra force inf(R)modified theories of gravity

Bertolami¹,

et al. 2007

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The equation of motion for massive particles in f (R) modified theories of gravity is derived. By considering an explicit coupling between an arbitrary function of the scalar curvature, R, and the Lagrangian density of matter, it is shown that an extra force arises. This extra force is orthogonal to the four-velocity and the corresponding acceleration law is obtained in the weak field limit. Connections with MOND and with the Pioneer anomaly are further discussed.

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Section: The Acceleration Law In F (R) Gravitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Extra force inf(R)modified theories of gravity

Bertolami¹,

et al. 2007

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“…256,[273][274][275][276][277] Among them, it is of particular interest the one 232,278 aiming to use data from New Horizons, which should reach Pluto in July 2015.…”

Section: The Pioneer Anomalymentioning

confidence: 99%

Gravitational anomalies in the solar system?

Iorio

2015

Int. J. Mod. Phys. D

100

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Mindful of the anomalous perihelion precession of Mercury discovered by U. Le Verrier in the second half of the nineteenth century and its successful explanation by A. Einstein with his General Theory of Relativity in the early years of the twentieth century, discrepancies among observed effects in our Solar system and their theoretical predictions on the basis of the currently accepted laws of gravitation applied to known matter-energy distributions have the potential of paving the way for remarkable advances in fundamental physics. This is particularly important now more than ever, given that most of the universe seems to be made of unknown substances dubbed Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Should this not be directly the case, Solar system's anomalies could anyhow lead to advancements in either cumulative science, as shown to us by the discovery of Neptune in the first half of the nineteenth century, and technology itself. Moreover, investigations in one of such directions can serendipitously enrich the other one as well. The current status of some alleged gravitational anomalies in the Solar system is critically reviewed. They are: a) Possible anomalous advances of planetary perihelia; b) Unexplained orbital residuals of a recently discovered moon of Uranus (Mab); c) The lingering unexplained secular increase of the eccentricity of the orbit of the Moon; d) The so-called Faint Young Sun Paradox; e) The secular decrease of the mass parameter of the Sun; f) The Flyby Anomaly; g) The Pioneer Anomaly; and h) The anomalous secular increase of the astronomical unit

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“…Work on the third phase was also initiated [55, 106, 309, 379, 391]. Mission studies conducted in 2004–2005 [106] have identified two options: i) an experiment on a major mission to deep space capable of reaching acceleration sensitivity similar to that demonstrated by the Pioneers and ii) a dedicated mission to explore the Pioneer anomaly that offers full characterization of the anomaly.…”

Section: Efforts To Explain and Study The Anomalymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Pioneer Anomaly

Turyshev

Toth²

2010

Living Rev. Relativ.

137

148

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Radio-metric Doppler tracking data received from the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft from heliocentric distances of 20–70 AU has consistently indicated the presence of a small, anomalous, blue-shifted frequency drift uniformly changing with a rate of ∼ 6 × 10−9 Hz/s. Ultimately, the drift was interpreted as a constant sunward deceleration of each particular spacecraft at the level of aP = (8.74 ± 1.33) × 10−10 m/s2. This apparent violation of the Newton’s gravitational inverse-square law has become known as the Pioneer anomaly; the nature of this anomaly remains unexplained. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of the physical properties of the anomaly and the conditions that led to its detection and characterization. We review various mechanisms proposed to explain the anomaly and discuss the current state of efforts to determine its nature. A comprehensive new investigation of the anomalous behavior of the two Pioneers has begun recently. The new efforts rely on the much-extended set of radio-metric Doppler data for both spacecraft in conjunction with the newly available complete record of their telemetry files and a large archive of original project documentation. As the new study is yet to report its findings, this review provides the necessary background for the new results to appear in the near future. In particular, we provide a significant amount of information on the design, operations and behavior of the two Pioneers during their entire missions, including descriptions of various data formats and techniques used for their navigation and radio-science data analysis. As most of this information was recovered relatively recently, it was not used in the previous studies of the Pioneer anomaly, but it is critical for the new investigation.

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A Mission to Test the Pioneer Anomaly: Estimating the Main Systematic Effects

Abstract: We estimate the main systematic effects relevant in a mission to test and characterize the Pioneer anomaly through the flight formation concept, by launching probing spheres from a mother spacecraft and tracking their motion via laser ranging.

Cited by 22 publications

References 16 publications

Extra force inf(R)modified theories of gravity

Extra force inf(R)modified theories of gravity

Gravitational anomalies in the solar system?

The Pioneer Anomaly

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