Freiburg 2008 – scientific programme

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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 12: Experimente zur Gravitation II

GR 12.6: Talk

Thursday, March 6, 2008, 15:40–16:00, KGI-HS 1010

Report on the new analysis of tracking and house keeping data of the spacecraft Pioneer 10 and 11 — Stefanie Bremer, Hansjörg Dittus, Claus Lämmerzahl, Meike List, •Laura Mullin, and Benny Rievers — ZARM, Universität Bremen, Am Fallturm, D - 28359 Bremen

The Pioneer Anomaly denotes the anomalous constant blue shift of the Doppler tracking data of the spacecraft Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 at distances between 20 and 70 astronomical units. The phenomenon has been reported the first time by JPL in 1998 (Anderson et al.) and gave rise of various speculations about its origin since then. The blue shift can be interpreted as a constant acceleration towards the sun or the earth. Intensive investigations had been carried out in order to identify internal (on-board) or external sources for systematic errors. So far, none of the various effects investigated can explain the phenomenon. As part of an international collaboration (funded by DLR, CNES, NASA, and the International Space Science Institute), research at ZARM is being undertaken in a new effort to understand systematic modelling errors on the Pioneer spacecraft using housekeeping telemetry data corresponding to the mission period originally studied. These data will allow the verification of a finite element thermal model under construction as well as maneuver and gas leak modelling. We will report on recent results.