# References

Anderson et al. reply (to the comment by Katz on “Indication, from Pioneer 10/11, Galileo, and Ulysses Data, of an Apparent Anomalous, Weak, Long-Range Acceleration”).

> We conclude that Katz’s proposal (anisotropic heat reflection off of the back of the spacecraft high-gain antennae, the heat coming from the RTGs) does not provide enough power and so can not explain the Pioneer anomaly.

In his comment , Katz proposes that the anomalous acceleration  seen in the Pioneer 10/11 spacecraft  is due to anisotropic heat reflection off of the back of the spacecraft high-gain antennae, the heat coming from the RTGs.

Before launch the four RTGs delivered a total electrical power of 160 W (now $``$ 70-80 W), from a total thermal fuel inventory of 2580 W (now $``$ 2090 W). Presently $`2000`$ W of RTG heat must be dissipated. Only $`75`$ W of directed power could explain the anomaly . Therefore, in principle there is enough power to explain the anomaly this way. However, 1) the geometry of the spacecraft and 2) the radiation pattern preclude it.

Many years ago this problem was discussed with John W. Dyer, who was a Pioneer Project engineer at NASA/ARC, and with James A. Van Allen. What comes below is at least a partial reconstruction of those discussions, which we wish to acknowledge.

1) SPACECRAFT GEOMETRY. The RTGs are located at the end of booms, and rotate about the craft in a plane that contains the approximate base of the antenna. From the RTGs the antenna is thus seen “edge on” and subtends a solid angle of $``$ 1.5 % of $`4\pi `$ steradians . This already means the proposal could provide at most $`30`$ W. But there is more.

2) RADIATION PATTERN. The above estimate is based on the assumption that the RTGs are spherical black bodies. But they are not. The main bodies of the RTGs are cylinders and they are grouped in two packages of two. Each package has the two cylinders end to end extending away from the antenna. Every RTG has six fins that go radially out from the cylinder Thus, the fins are “edge on” to the antenna (the fins point perpendicular to the cylinder axes). Ignoring edge effects, this means that only 2.5 % of the surface area of the RTGs is facing the antenna. Further, for better radiation from the fins, the Pioneer SNAP 19 RTGs had larger fins than the earlier test models, and the packages were insulated so that the end caps had lower temperatures and radiated less than the cylinder/fins . As a result, the vast majority of the RTG heat is symmetrically radiated to space, unobscured by the antenna.

We conclude that Katz’s proposal does not provide enough power and so can not explain the Pioneer anomaly .

Independent of the above, we continue to search for a systematic origin of the effect.

A few weeks after our letter  was accepted, we began using new JPL software (SIGMA) to reduce the Pioneer 10 Doppler data to 50-day averages of acceleration, extending from January 1987 to July 1998, over a distance interval from 40 to 69 AU.

Before mid-1990, the spacecraft rotation rate changed (slowed) by about -0.065 rev/day/day. Between mid-1990 and mid-1992 the spin-deceleration increased to -0.4 rev/day/day. But after mid-1992 the spin rate remained $``$ constant. In units of 10<sup>-8</sup> cm/s<sup>2</sup>, the mean acceleration levels obtained by SIGMA from the Doppler data in these periods are : $`(7.94\pm 0.11)`$ before mid-1990, $`(8.39\pm 0.14)`$ between mid-1990 and mid-1992, and $`(7.29\pm 0.17)`$ after mid-1992. \[Similar values $`(8.27\pm 0.05,8.77\pm 0.04,7.76\pm 0.08)`$ were obtained using CHASMP.\] We detect no long-term deceleration changes from mid-1992 to mid-1998, and only two spin-related discontinuities over the entire data period.

Assume that the slowing of the spin rate was caused by spacecraft systems (perhaps gas leak changes) that also account for a few % systematic effect. Then, excluding other biases (such as the radio beam decreasing the measured anomaly), we should adopt the post-1992 value as the most accurate measure of the anomalous Pioneer 10 acceleration.

This work was supported by the Pioneer Project, NASA/Ames Research Center, and was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA. P.A.L. and A.S.L. acknowledge support by a grant from NASA through the Ultraviolet, Visible, and Gravitational Astrophysics Program. M.M.N. acknowledges support by the U.S. DOE and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

John D. Anderson,<sup>a</sup> Philip A. Laing,<sup>b</sup> Eunice L. Lau,<sup>a</sup> Anthony S. Liu,<sup>c</sup> Michael Martin Nieto,<sup>d,e</sup> and Slava G. Turyshev<sup>a</sup>

<sup>a</sup>Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109   
<sup>b</sup> The Aerospace Corporation, 2350 E. El Segundo Blvd., El Segundo, CA 90245-4691   
<sup>c</sup> Astrodynamic Sciences, 2393 Silver Ridge Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039   
<sup>d</sup> Theoretical Division (MS-B285), Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of California, Los Alamos, NM 87545   
<sup>e</sup>Abteilung für Quantenphysik, Universität Ulm, D-86069 Ulm, Germany

Received   
PACS numbers: 04.80.-y, 95.10.Eg, 95.55.Pe