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Independent confirmation of the pioneer 10 anomalous acceleration
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Markwardt, Craig B. |
| Copyright Year | 2002 |
| Description | I perform an independent analysis of radio Doppler tracking data from the Pioneer 10 spacecraft for the time period 1987-1994. All of the tracking data were taken from public archive sources, and the analysis tools were developed independently by myself. I confirm that an apparent anomalous acceleration is acting on the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, which is not accounted for by present physical models of spacecraft navigation. My best fit value for the acceleration, including corrections for systematic biases and uncertainties, is (8.60 plus or minus 1.34) x 10(exp -8) centimeters per second, directed towards the Sun. This value compares favorably to previous results. I examine the robustness of my result to various perturbations of the analysis method, and find agreement to within plus or minus 5%. The anomalous acceleration is reasonably constant with time, with a characteristic variation time scale of greater than 70 yr. Such a variation timescale is still too short to rule out on-board thermal radiation effects, based on this particular Pioneer 10 data set. |
| File Size | 1504050 |
| Page Count | 29 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_20030112412 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t3gx9893g |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 2002-01-01 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command And Tracking Root-mean-square Errors Gravitation Perturbation Equations of Motion Oscillators Deep Space Network Spacecraft Communication Acceleration Physics Mathematical Models Doppler Radar Pioneer 10 Space Probe Space Navigation Radio Tracking Anomalies Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports ServerĀ (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |