1103.5222 (F. Francisco et al.)

Modelling the reflective thermal contribution to the acceleration of the Pioneer spacecraft    [PDF]

F. Francisco, O. Bertolami, P. J. S. Gil, J. Páramos

We present an improved method to compute the radiative momentum transfer in the Pioneer 10 & 11 spacecraft that takes into account both diffusive and specular reflection. The method allows for more reliable results regarding the thermal acceleration of the deep-space probes, confirming previous findings. A parametric analysis is performed in order to set an upper and lower-bound for the thermal acceleration and its evolution with time.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.5222