PROPOSAL FOR A SATELLITE TEST OF THE CORIOLIS PREDICTIONS OF GENERAL RELATIVITY
Introduction Measurement of Orientation Significance of Experiment Feasibility of the Experiment Major Atmospheric Perturbations A Technique to Minimize the Atmospheric Perturbations Remaining Atmospheric Perturbations The Gravitational Perturbation The Magnetic Perturbation Useful By-products of the Experiment Summary Acknowledgments Table I Summary of Parameters George E. Pugh 12 November 1959 *This article has been reset with errors corrected by editors of this volume. PROPOSAL FOR A SATELLITE TEST OF THE CORIOLIS PREDICTIONS OF GENERAL RELATIVITYa Abstract A technique is proposed to use the gyroscopic stability of a spinning artificial satellite to measure the apparent Coriolis force (Lense-Thirring effect) predicted by general relativity. It is established that the primary satellite ought to be shielded from atmospheric buffeting by a secondary or tender satellite that would accompany the primary test vehicle. Other perturbations considered are interaction with the magnetic field of the earth, and interaction of any gravitational quadrupole moment of the satellite with the gradient of the earth's gravitational field. These interactions are sufficiently small that design of a vehicle to avoid excessive interaction should be possible.A technique is proposed to use the gyroscopic stability of a spinning artificial satellite to measure the apparent Coriolis force (Lense-Thirring effect) predicted by general relativity. It is established that the primary satellite ought to be shielded from atmospheric buffeting by a secondary or tender satellite that would accompany the primary test vehicle. Other perturbations considered are interaction with the magnetic field of the earth, and interaction of any gravitational quadrupole moment of the satellite with the gradient of the earth's gravitational field. These interactions are sufficiently small that design of a vehicle to avoid excessive interaction should be possible. The spinning shielded satellite technique proposed here could make possible a rather accurate measurement of the curvature of space near the earth. This curvature manifests itself in a precession of the spin (the de Sitter-Fokker effect), which is about a factor of 12 larger than the Lense-Thirring effect and thus could provide a logical first step for such a program. Development of the exterior, or tender, satellite alone would offer a number of subsidiary advantages. It could be used with a dummy interior satellite ot obtain drag-free trajectories and thus provide a very accurate tool to study air drag, as well as gravitation and geodetics. By using an interior satellite with very different nuclear composition the tender could be used to establish the equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass to greater accuracy. WSEG RESEARCH MEMORANDUM NO. 11 PROPOSAL FOR A SATELLITE TEST OF THE CORIOLIS PREDICTION OF GENERAL RELATIVITY