Finding the Origin of the Pioneer Anomaly

Status Report From: arXiv.org e-Print archive
Posted: Thursday, August 21, 2003

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology, abstract
gr-qc/0308017

From: Michael Martin Nieto <mmn@lanl.gov>
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2003 22:13:19 GMT   (262kb)

Finding the Origin of the Pioneer Anomaly

Authors: Michael Martin Nieto, Slava G. Turyshev
Comments: 14 pages, 5 figures
Report-no: LA-UR-03-5540

Analysis of the radio tracking data from the Pioneer 10/11 spacecraft at distances between 20 - 70 AU from the Sun has consistently indicated the presence of an anomalous, small Doppler frequency drift. The drift can be interpreted as being due to a constant acceleration of a_P = (8.74 pm 1.33) x 10^{-8} cm/s^2 directed towards the Sun. Although it is suspected that there is a systematic origin to the effect, none has been found. As a result, the nature of this anomaly has become of growing interest. We have developed a concept for a deep-space mission that would reveal the origin of the discovered anomaly. A number of critical requirements and design considerations for such a mission are outlined and addressed. In particular we explore the use of a solar sail as a means to reach a great distance from the Sun in a short period of time.

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SLAC-SPIRES HEP (refers to , cited by, arXiv reformatted)