A Prosaic Explanation for the Anomalous Accelerations Seen in Distant Spacecraft

Preprint

5 October 1998

preprint
Published by arXiv in arXiv

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.gr-qc/9810015

Abstract

Anderson, et al. (gr-qc/9808081) have recently reported the discovery of an apparent anomalous, weak, long-range acceleration in the Pioneer 10/11 and Ulysses spacecraft. I believe that this result can be explained by non-isotropic radiative cooling of the spacecraft electronics through passive radiators on the spacecraft surface. These radiators are preferentially placed on the anti-solar side of the spacecraft to avoid heating by solar radiation. The power transmitted through these radiator panels can explain the observed acceleration within the observational errors.

Keywords

ANOMALOUS ACCELERATIONS
PROSAIC EXPLANATION
SPACECRAFT ANDERSON
DISTANT SPACECRAFT
SOLAR RADIATION
GR QC/9808081
PASSIVE

All Related Versions

Version 1, 1998-10-05, ArXiv
Published version: Physical Review Letters, 83 (9), 1890.

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