Significant progress was accomplished concerning the first and second phases [260, 305, 379, 394].
Work on the third phase was also initiated [55, 106, 309, 379, 391
]. Mission studies conducted in
2004 – 2005 [106
] have identified two options: i) an experiment on a major mission to deep space
capable of reaching acceleration sensitivity similar to that demonstrated by the Pioneers and
ii) a dedicated mission to explore the Pioneer anomaly that offers full characterization of the
anomaly.
Below we discuss both of these proposals.
A way to confirm independently the anomaly is to fly an instrumental package on a mission heading to the outer regions of the solar system. The primary goal is to provide an independent experimental confirmation of the anomaly. One can conceive of an instrument placed on a major mission to deep space. The instrument must be able to compensate for systematic effects to an accuracy below the level of 10–10 m/s2. Another concept is a simple autonomous probe that could be jettisoned from the main vehicle, such as the proposed Interstellar Probe27, presumably further out than at least the orbit of Jupiter or Saturn. The probe would then be navigated from the ground yielding a navigational accuracy below the level of 10–10 m/s2. The data collected could provide an independent experimental verification of the anomaly’s existence.
Dittus et al. [106] emphasized that the option of an instrument on a major mission to deep space would have a
major impact on spacecraft and mission designs with limited improvement in measuring
. Nevertheless,
a highly-accurate accelerometer has been proposed as part of the Gravity Advanced Package, which is a
fundamental physics experiment that is being considered by the ESA for the future Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter
Mission28.
At the same time, it is clear that to explore the anomaly one needs to travel beyond the orbit of
Jupiter. Furthermore, an acceleration sensitivity at the level of
10–12 m/s2 would be
preferable, which can be done only with a dedicated mission, as discussed in Section 6.8.2
below.
The available knowledge of the Pioneer anomaly lead to the following science objectives for a dedicated
mission to explore the Pioneer anomaly: i) investigate the origin of the anomaly with an improvement by a
factor of 1,000; ii) improve spatial, temporal, and directional resolution; iii) identify and measure all
possible disturbing and competing effects; iv) test Newtonian gravity potential at large distances;
v) discriminate amongst candidate theories explaining , and vi) study the deep-space environment in
the outer solar system.
A viable concept would utilize a spacecraft pair capable of flying in a flexible formation (see
Figure 6.1). The main craft would have a precision star-tracker and an accelerometer and would be
capable of precise navigation, with disturbances, to a level less than
10–10 m/s2 in the
low-frequency acceleration regime. Mounted on the front would be a container holding a probe – a
spherical test mass covered with corner cubes. Once the configuration is on its solar system escape
trajectory and will undergo no further navigation maneuvers, and is at a heliocentric distance of
5 – 20 AU, the test mass would be released from the primary craft. The probe will be
passively laser-ranged from the primary craft with the latter having enough capabilities to
maneuver with respect to the probe, if needed. The distance from the Earth to the primary
would be determined with either standard radiometric methods operating at Ka-band or with
optical communication. Note that any dynamical noise at the primary would be a common
mode contribution to the Earth-primary and primary-probe distances. This design satisfies the
primary objective, which would be accomplished by the two-staged accurate navigation of the
probe with sensitivity down to the 10–12 m/s2 level in the DC of extremely low frequency
bandwidth.
Since the small forces affecting the motion of a craft in four possible directions all have
entirely different characteristics (i.e., sunward, earthward, along the velocity vector or along the
spin-axis [260, 391]), it is clear that an antenna with a highly directional radiation pattern along with star
sensors will create even better conditions for resolving the true direction of the anomaly when
compared to standard navigation techniques. On a craft with these additional capabilities,
all on-board systematics will become a common mode factor contributing to all the attitude
sensors and antennas. The combination of all the attitude measurements will enable one to
clearly separate the effects of the on-board systematics referenced to the direction towards the
Sun.
To enable fast orbital transfer to distances greater than 20 AU, hyperbolic escape trajectories enabled by solar sail propulsion technology were considered as an attractive candidate. Among other options is a standard chemical rocket and nuclear electric propulsion, as was successfully demonstrated recently [260]. The proposed combination of a formation-flying system aided by solar sail propulsion for fast trajectory transfer, leads to a technology combination that will benefit many missions in the future [389, 399].
Two missions were recently proposed to explore the Pioneer anomaly in a dedicated space experiment. The Solar System Odyssey mission will use modern-day high-precision experimental techniques to test the laws of fundamental physics, which determine dynamics in the solar system [78]. The mission design is similar to the one proposed for the Deep Space Gravity Probe (DSGP) [106]. Also, the proposed SAGAS (Search for Anomalous Gravitation using Atomic Sensors) mission [424] aims at flying highly sensitive atomic sensors (optical clock, cold atom accelerometer, optical link) on a solar system escape trajectory. SAGAS has numerous science objectives in solar system exploration and fundamental physics, including an accurate test of the Pioneer anomaly.
The extraordinary nature of the Pioneer anomalous acceleration led to serious questions concerning the possible origin of the effect. Answering these questions requires further in-depth analysis. This is especially true before any serious discussion of a dedicated experiment can take place. In fact, prior to the development of any dedicated mission to investigate the Pioneer anomaly, it is absolutely essential to analyze the complete Pioneer Doppler data in order to rule out, as much as possible, any engineering cause. This study is on-going and will be reviewed in Section 7.
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