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Abstract


Gravity Probe B Experiment: A Failure?

Christian Sutterlin
Year: 2009
Keywords: Relativity, Gravitation, Drag, Frame
Gravity Probe B experiment results finally seem to confirm the Frame-Dragging effect of GRT after several corrections of the measured values. These results are they undoubtful? They cover only 2 months. Unfortunately those two months are going from end December to end February when the distance from the Earth to the Sun is steadily increasing so that the differential effect of the Sun on Probe B satellite is decreasing exactly like the curves given within the experiment final report. It would have been so nice to cover a period from the 15th November  to the 15th February so that the effect of the Sun could have been clearly eliminated!

But there is even worse:

They show also a periodical effect clearly demonstrated by all of the four gyros curves (please note that the scales of the curves given in the final report  are not all the same). The periodicity is approximately 4 per month. This is the double of the tidal effect (two maxima per month). The only such periodicity equal to 4 per month is the nul value of the tidal curve derivation. The maxima occur the very same day for all four curves of course.

The most amazing feature is that one on two of all the four Probe B frame-dragging effect curves maxima occurs exactly at the date of highest tides.

Those highest tides occured on the (dd/mm/yyyy)

           27/12/2004
           12/01/2005
           28/01/2005
           10/02/2005

(This is the days in Brest FRA but they are the same everywhere of course because they are linked to the relative positions of the Sun, the Moon and the Earth)

Now why is there an additional maximum of all four curves in between highest tides day?

All these problems make the results of this experiment highly questionable! The most interesting is that they are fully in line with Prof. Allais findings both with his paraconic pendulum and with his analysis of Miller measurements with MMI.