A mission to explore the Pioneer anomaly

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2005

Authors

Dittus, H (Author) Other; Turyshev, SG (Author) Other; Lammerzahl, C (Author) Other; Theil, S (Author) Other; Foerstner, R (Author) Other; Johann, U (Author) Other; Ertmer, W (Author) Other; Rasel, E (Author) Other; Dachwald, B (Author) Other; Seboldt, W (Author) Other; Hehl, FW (Author) Other; Kiefer, C (Author) Other; Blome, HJ (Author) Other; Kunz, J (Author) Other; Giulini, D (Author) Other; Bingham, R (Author) Other; Kent, B (Author) Other; Sumner, TJ (Author) Other; Bertolami, O (Author) Other; Jorge Páramos (Author) Other; Rosales, JL (Author) Other; Christophe, B (Author) Other; Foulon, B (Author) Other; Touboul, P (Author) Other; Bouyer, P (Author) Other; Reynaud, S (Author) Other; Brillet, A (Author) Other; Bondu, F (Author) Other; Samain, E (Author) Other; De Matos, CJ (Author) Other; Erd, C (Author) Other; Grenouilleau, JC (Author) Other; Izzo, D (Author) Other; Rathke, A (Author) Other; Anderson, JD (Author) Other; Asmar, SW (Author) Other; Lau, EE (Author) Other; Nieto, MM (Author) Other; Mashhoon, B (Author) Other

Conference proceedings International

Title: European Space Agency, (Special Publication) ESA SP

Pages: 3-10

2004 Envisat and ERS Symposium

Salzburg, 6 September 2004 through 10 September 2004

Indexing

Scopus - 20 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-007-F6J

Abstract (EN): The Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft yielded the most precise navigation in deep space to date. These spacecraft had exceptional acceleration sensitivity. However, analysis of their radio-metric tracking data has consistently indicated that at heliocentric distances of ~20-70 astronomical units, the orbit determinations indicated the presence of a small, anomalous, Doppler frequency drift. The drift is a blue-shift, uniformly changing with a rate of ~ (5.99 ± 0.01) × 10-9 Hz s-1, which can be interpreted as a constant sunward acceleration of each particular spacecraft of aP = (8.74 ± 1.33) × 10-10 ms -2(Anderson et al. 1998; Turyshev et al. 1999; Anderson et al. 2002a). The nature of this anomaly remains unexplained. This signal has become known as the Pioneer anomaly. The inability to explain the anomalous behavior of the Pioneers with conventional physics has contributed to growing discussion about its origin. There is now an increasing number of proposals that attempt to explain the anomaly outside conventional physics. This progress emphasizes the need for a new experiment to explore the detected signal. Furthermore, the recent extensive efforts led to the conclusion that only a dedicated experiment could ultimately determine the nature of the found signal. We discuss the Pioneer anomaly and present the next steps towards an understanding of its origin. We specificallyfocus on the development of a mission to explore the Pioneer Anomaly in a dedicated experiment conducted in deep space. This joint European-US mission is motivated by the desire to better understand the laws of fundamental physics as they affect dynamics in the solar system. The mission could lead to a major discovery in the 21st century and, with readily available technologies, it could be flown well within the Cosmic Vision time frame.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific