A Prosaic Explanation for the Anomalous Accelerations Seen in Distant Spacecraft
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2009-10-31 v1
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
Cite
@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9810015,
title = {A Prosaic Explanation for the Anomalous Accelerations Seen in Distant Spacecraft},
author = {Edward M. Murphy},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9810015},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
REVTEX v3.1, 3 pages with no figures submitted to Physical Review Letters