http://einstein.stanford.edu/highlights/status1.

html

MISSION UPDATE May 23, 2008

PROGRAM STATUS
Following is status update on GP-B since our previous update, posted in March 2008.

An overview of the GP-B experiment

The GP-B Launch in April 2004

Illustration of the frame-dragging effect

Francis Everitt talks about the importance of testing Einstein

Physicist Kip Thorne discusses the scientific significance of GP-B

Advances in trapped flux mapping

Seeing general relativity directly in the data

NASAs 2008 Senior Review of GP-B

In March 2008 at NASA's invitation, we submitted a proposal to the Science Mission Directorate, Astrophysics Division Senior Review of Operating Missions (Sr. Review), requesting a final 18-month (October 2008 through March 2010), $3.8M extension of GP-B to complete the data analysis and publish the results. In April, as part of the Sr. Review process, GP-B Principal Investigator, Francis Everitt, and Program Manager, William Bencze, made a presentation to the Sr. Review Committee at NASA Headquarters, where it appeared to have been favorably received. Thus, we were greatly surprised last week to discover that the Sr. Review had recommended that NASA not grant our final funding extension, particularly since another NASA committee the GP-B Science Advisory Committee (SAC), chaired by relativistic physicist Clifford Willstated in its report following the November 2007 meeting: The SAC was impressed with the truly extraordinary progress that has been made in data analysis since SAC-16 [Mar 2007] and we now agree that GP-B is on an accelerating path toward reaching good science results. The Sr. Review evaluation is an unexpected setback, but we are determined to push ahead and drive to the very best possible result within the resources available.

The Plight of Fundamental Physics Research at NASA

While the Sr. Review outcome has ramifications for GP-B, in broader terms, it points to the challenge of finding support for fundamental physics experiments within the NASA culture of observational missions. This has been an ongoing issue within NASA for decades. In the 1990s, fundamental physics research experiments were scattered over several divisions of NASA, which led in 1999, to the blue-ribbon NASA Advisory Council (NAC) recommending to the NASA Administrator that the agency create a "single home room" for physics missions in space so that these missions would be given the support and visibility they deserved. The 1999 NAC committee's advice was never heeded. Furthermore, during the 2004 restructuring and consolidation of NASA divisions, the already small budget for fundamental physics research was cut to zero in the NASA Exploration Directorate, entirely eliminating fundamental physics research from that division. This left the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) as the only home for fundamental physics experiments like GP-B. However, in the SMD, physics experiments had to compete directly with the NASA Great Observatories and other astrophysics missions for pieces of an already-decimated research budget. It is no criticism of the SMD Sr. Review to say that of the ten missions under review, GP-B as a physics experiment rather than an observatory was quite unlike the rest and almost impossible to fit within a common intellectual framework. Regrettably, since NASA has failed to establish a fundamental physics research division, several missions besides GP-B have suffered. If such a division existed, we believe the agencys support for the proper completion of GP-B would continue to be strong.

The Continued Relevance & Importance of GP-B

One of the Sr. Review Committees main arguments supporting its recommendation that NASA not fund the final extension requested by GP-B, was that the goals of GP-B have already been fulfilled by other measurements, and that GP-B is therefore no longer relevant. This view is in stark contrast with the recommendations of the SAC (2007), NASAs Turner panel review of GP-B (2003), and NASAs Fitch-Taylor NRC review of GP-B (1995). All of

these reviews concluded that the GP-B experiment is scientifically justified and should be completed. Now, in 2008, the scientific justification for completing the GP-B experiment is even more valid. During the past five years, there has been little progress on other relativity experiments, but GP-B was launched, operated, and collected all of the necessary data. After two years of intense work, the GP-B science team is very close to completing the data analysis. GP-B has made, in the view of the SAC, extraordinary progress in addressing two unexpected and difficult complications in analysis caused by unanticipated electrostatic patch effect fields within the gyroscope. (These have been reported previously in our status updates dated Summer 2007, September 2007 and December 2007.) GP-B directly studies gravity, one of the most fundamental laws of nature. Inherently, the goals of GP-B differ significantly from those of typical astrophysics missions, where natural lawsinferred theoretically and tested on the groundare used to interpret observations of astrophysical phenomena. Furthermore, GP-B objectives and methods are qualitatively different from those underlying most astrophysical work. For this reason, the GP-B experiment begs to be evaluated with respect to criteria based on its direct experimental methodology. Direct tests of natures laws are the foundation of physical science; such tests are the only rational basis for the belief that these laws are, in part, understood. GP-B seeks to deepen our understanding of gravity in this way. In addition to its scientific significance, GP-B's technological heritage and operational experience is critically important for future gravity space missions, including tests of the equivalence principle (STEP) and the search for gravitational waves (LISA). NASA stands to loose much of the expertise developed on the GP-B mission if the program is not brought to a proper conclusion.

The Road Ahead

Our GP-B team has been making steady progress in analyzing the data and working through the unexpected complications discovered within the data. We are now in the home stretch. We have identified the issues that still need to be addressed, and we have prepared a sound plan for completion of the analysis. This plan, which was spelled out in detail in our proposal to the NASA Sr. Review, requires an additional 18-month investment of $3.8M from September 2008 through March 2010. If no further funds are forthcoming from NASA, the analysis efforts will likely cease by October 2008, unless other funding sources can be identified. Since February 2008, GP-B has been funded by contributions from NASA, Stanford University, and a private donor, in approximately equal shares. We have now clearly confirmed the geodetic effect to a precision of less than 1.5% (97 milliarcseconds/year). However, because the frame-dragging effect is ~170 times smaller, removing the sources of error from that measurementespecially the non-relativistic torques due to patch effect interactions between the gyro rotors and their housingsis a detailed, painstakingly slow process. We have yet to reach a point of diminishing returns. Until we do, it is our intention to push onward and obtain the best result possible to properly complete this landmark experiment. We will continue to keep you posted on our progress.

LINKS TO OTHER GP-B TOPICS

GP-B Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Track the satellite in the sky Build a paper model of the GP-B Spacecraft Our mailing listreceive GP-B status updates via email View a Flash video of Professor Everitt's 18 May 2006 lecture on GP-B Note: Both audio-only and video versions of this lecture are also available on the Stanford on iTUNES U Web site. This Web page automatically launches the Apple iTunes program on both Macintosh and Windows computers, with a special Stanford on iTunes U "music store," containing free downloads of Stanford lectures, performances, and events. Francis Everitt's "Testing Einstein in Space" lecture is located in the Science & TechnologyEngineering section. People with audio-only iPods can download the version under the Audio tab; people with 5th generation (video) iPods can download the version under the Video tab.

Graphics & Animations: The overview collage of the GP-B experiment and the illustration of the frame-dragging effect were created by Gp-B Public Affairs Coordinator/Webmaster, Bob Kahn. The launch video clip and the clips of Francis Everitt and Kip Thorne, excerpted from the GP-B Pre-Launch Press Conference, are courtesty of NASA. Finally, the two PowerPoint slides showing advances in trapped flux mapping and an 85-day relativity result were excerpted from a November presentation by GP-B Principal Investigator, Francis Everitt. Click on the thumbnails of any graphic or animation to view these images at full size or play the animations.

21. Oktober 2004

VERWIRBELTE RAUMZEIT

Laser-Messung besttigt Einsteins Theorie

1916 stellte Albert Einstein die Allgemeine Relativittstheorie vor. Seine Vorhersage von der Verwirbelung der Raumzeit blieb jedoch unbesttigt. Jetzt haben zwei Forscher erstmals nachgewiesen, dass die rotierende Erde die Raumzeit tatschlich verwirbelt.

Gravitations-Modell der Nasa: Strungen herausgerechnet, um Einsteins Vorhersage zu beweisen Seit mehr als 40 Jahren haben sich Physiker an Einsteins Vorhersage die Zhne ausgebissen. Der US-Satellit "Gravity Probe B" sollte das Problem in den Griff bekommen. Seit April dieses Jahres umkreist er die Erde mit vier speziellen Kreiseln, so genannten Gyroskopen an Bord. Die beteiligten Forscher hoffen, dass sie mit dem 700-Millionen-Dollar Projekt eine der letzten unbewiesenen Thesen experimentell nachweisen knnen: Die Verwirbelung der Raumzeit durch die rotierende Erde. Doch mglicherweise haben nun ein italienischer und ein griechischer Wissenschaftler den ehrgeizigen Mitarbeitern am Projekt "Gravity Probe B" die Show gestohlen. Mit vergleichsweise primitiven Mitteln, nmlich einem Laserabstandsmesser, sei der Beweis der Raumzeit-Verwirbelung gelungen, schreiben Ignazio Ciufolini von der Universitt Lecce und sein Kollege Erricos Pavlis von der University of Maryland in Baltimore County im Magazin "Nature" (Bd. 431, S. 958 - 960). Ciufolini und Pavlis haben die beiden lteren "Lageos"-Satelliten der Nasa elf Jahre lang mit Lasergerten beobachtet. Die Messgerte knnen die Position der Satelliten auf wenige Millimeter genau bestimmen. Das Ergebnis ihrer Beobachtungen werten die beiden Forscher als Beweis fr Einsteins These: Die Satelliten wurden pro Jahr um zwei Meter nach auen geschoben - dies entspricht mit einer Genauigkeit von 99 Prozent dem Wert, der sich aus der von Einstein berechneten Verwirbelung der Raumzeit ergibt. Unabhngige Besttigung "Das ist die erste wirklich genaue Messung der Raumzeit-Verwirbelung", schreibt Neil Ashby, Physiker an der University of Colorado in Boulder, in einem begleitenden "Nature"Artikel. Die Italiener htten Einsteins Vorhersage erfolgreich besttigt.

"Gravity Probe B": Ein Prozent Genauigkeit mglich

Die Konkurrenz in den USA meldete prompt Zweifel an den Ergebnissen. "Eine der Hauptschwierigkeiten ist, den Effekt der Raumzeit-Verwirbelung von der groen Gravitationswirkung der Erde zu trennen", erklrte Clifford Will, Leiter des Nasa-Wissenschaftlerteams von "Gravity Probe B". Wre die Erde eine exakte Kugel, liee sich die Raumzeit-Verwirbelung leicht messen. Da unser Planet jedoch eine sehr unebene Oberflche besitzt, erzeugt die Erde auch ein ungleichmiges Gravitationsfeld.

Die beiden italienischen Laserforscher kannten diesen berechtigten Einwand und bedienten sich aktueller Messdaten des Erdfeldes, um die Strungen herauszurechnen. Das derzeit genaueste Gravitationsmodell der Erde stammt von der Nasa-Sonde "Grace", die im Mrz

2002 ins All gestartet war. Dank dieser Daten, so glauben Ciufolini und Pavlis, seien ihre Messungen genau genug. Die mgliche Fehlermarge bezifferten sie auf maximal zehn Prozent. "Gravity Probe B" soll eine Genauigkeit von einem Prozent erreichen. Dies drfte wohl auch die letzten Zweifler an Einsteins Vorhersagen berzeugen. Einstein hatte im Jahr 1916 die Idee entwickelt, dass Raum und Zeit eine Struktur bilden, die sich durch den Einfluss von Gravitation ndert. Die Krmmung der Raumzeit gehrt zu den Kernpunkten der Allgemeinen Relativittstheorie. Zwei Jahre spter folgerten die beiden sterreicher Joseph Lense und Hans Thirring aus der Allgemeinen Relativittstheorie, dass ein rotierendes Objekt Zeit und Raum mit sich ziehen und deren Struktur verformen msste. Die Raumzeit-Verwirbelung heit deshalb auch Lense-Thirring-Effekt.
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltall/0,1518,324215,00.html