Gravity Probe B Mission Completes Data Collection

[drwayne]

http://www.physorg.com/news6934.html<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>

 

[mikejz]

Any value in an extended mission?

 

[remekr]

Without any more liquid helium the sensors on GP-B are just about useless - everything was designed to work at temperatures as close as possible to absolute zero.

 

[CalliArcale]

Cool! While a mission like this doesn't produce flashy pictures or anything easily graspable by laypeople like myself, it's still amazingly cool. Measuring the warping of spacetime, something that can be neither touched nor seen. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[barrykirk]

It will be really cool when we can use the data from the experiment to develop the theory of warp drive. LOL

 

[serak_the_preparer]

Some preliminary results:<br /><br />Gravity Probe B backs general relativity by Jon Cartwright (<i>Physics Web</i>)<br /><br />16 April 2007<br /><br /><b>A preliminary analysis of data from the Gravity Probe B satellite has confirmed that the Earth's mass distorts the fabric of space and time as predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. Although this "geodetic effect" has already been proven with greater accuracy through other measurements, the Gravity Probe team claim that their successful analysis paves the way for using data from the satellite to make a very accurate measurement of a second, much subtler consequence of general relativity called "frame-dragging". However, some physicists are questioning this claim and asking if the final results will be worth the probe’s $700 million price tag....</b><br /><br /><i>Now analysis of the data from GP-B has confirmed the geodetic effect with an accuracy of better than one percent. Although the same effect has already been measured by NASA's Cassini mission, the results indicate that the much subtler frame-dragging effect should be confirmed by further data analysis by the end of this year. Frame-dragging has also been measured before by NASA's LAGEOS satellites with an accuracy of ten percent, and it is currently unclear whether GP-B data will yield a more accurate result....</i>