Delta 2 Breaks Free Of Gravity

TECH SPACE

A Delta 2 Launch

Vandenberg - Apr 20, 2004
NASA's Gravity Probe B (GP-B) space vehicle, built, integrated and tested by Lockheed Martin, roared into space this morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Stanford University is the GP-B prime contractor. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Manages the program.

During its 16-month mission, GP-B will attempt to verify two subtle physical effects predicted by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, which provides the foundations for understanding the large-scale structure of the Universe.

"We're enormously pleased that Gravity Probe B is safely in orbit and operating as expected. It is because of close collaboration with our Stanford and NASA colleagues that we have reached this important milestone," said Jim Crocker, vice president, civil space, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. "We look forward to the mission ahead and the data that will increase our understanding of the fundamental structure of the universe."

The GP-B space vehicle comprises the spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, and its payload. The payload is made up of the dewar, the key structural component around which the GP-B space vehicle was built, and the flight probe, a nine-foot-long cigar-shaped vacuum chamber. Both elements were built at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Palo Alto. Inside the flight probe is the Science Instrument Assembly, built by Stanford University.

The GP-B experiment will be conducted in an extremely stable environment, free from all outside forces. Lockheed Martin designed the enclosure within the spacecraft in which the Science Instrument Assembly will operate at a temperature near absolute zero.

When the Gravity Probe B experiment begins, the instrument apparatus will measure minute changes in spin axis orientation of four ultra-precise gyroscopes contained within. The gyros will be so free of disturbances that they will provide a nearly perfect space-time reference system. They will measure two predicted effects of Einstein's theory: whether and how space and time are warped by the presence of Earth, and whether and how the rotating Earth drags space-time around with it. This will be by far the most accurate test of any of the predicted effects of Einstein's theory.

Small as the two effects measured by Gravity Probe B are, their measurement will provide an extremely important advance by testing previously unproven predictions of Einstein's theory. They may provide critical clues to modern attempts to unify the four fundamental forces observed in Nature: electromagnetism, gravity, and the so-called strong and weak interactions that govern the behavior of atomic nuclei.

"Gravity Probe B is one of the few space missions NASA has conducted with relevance to fundamental physics," stated a review of GP-B undertaken in 1995 by the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council. "If successful, it would assuredly join the ranks of the classical experiments of physics. By the same token, a confirmed result in disagreement with General Relativity would be revolutionary."

TECH SPACE

Arizonian Optical Engineers Play Key Role In Gravity Probe B

Tucson - Apr 15, 2004
University of Arizona optical scientists have played important roles in the Gravity Probe B experiment, which will test key ideas in Albert Einstein's theories of space and time. The Stanford University experiment, first proposed 40 years ago, will finally start Monday (April 19) when NASA launches the $700 million science mission.

Einstein's Theory To Get Field Tested

Cambridge MA - Apr 06, 2004
When NASA's Gravity Probe B (GP-B) satellite launches on April 17th, it will begin a rigorous test of Einstein's general theory of relativity. The result will either support or challenge one of the fundamental tenets of modern physics.

World's Most Precise Gyroscopes Ready To Test Einstein Theory

Vandenberg AFB - Apr 05, 2004
NASA's Gravity Probe B mission, also known as GP-B, will use four ultra-precise gyroscopes, orbiting the Earth in a unique satellite, to experimentally test two extraordinary predictions of Einstein's 1916 theory that space and time are distorted by the presence of massive objects.

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