Cool.
BTW - before I posted this one, I figured someone must have posted about GPB and I was going to contribute, so I used the search feature and found nothing. 8-[

For some reason if you search on "Gravity Probe B" nothing turns up, but if you do just "Gravity Probe" it does. Don't ask me why. (Meanwhile, I had the advantage of knowing that there was a previous thread.)

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As near as I can tell, searching for words of four letters and shorter return null sets. Had you searched for "gravity probe b" and did not use the "Search for all terms" option, you would have had 10046 posts returned. More, now.

Official press release:

NASA Gravity Probe B mission enters science phase, ready to test Einstein's theory

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And now it's obsolete?

Neutron stars steal space probe's glory

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That's awesome - go astronomers!

I'm itching to see how close the frame-dragging calculations of GR correspond to the data...Gravity probe's data will be within 1% experimental accuracy...ooooh. But the binary pulsar data may require significant assumptions regarding their moments of inertia, which sounds imprecise.

Sadly, they're both two to three Years away from conclusions on the frame-dragging aspect

Some researchers have already announced results using the LAGEOS orbitting rocks.

Well great, how close do they conform to expectations milli360?

Princz had some info on it last year. He said "the first detection of Lense-Thirring as dating to 1995, with
better results yet in 1998, with NASA releasing news of the detection at
least as early as January 1999"

Why does it take them so long to complete these tests? :-?

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Thanks milli360, I'll have to track those articles down, unless someone 'round here has the numbers--I gotta say, the frame-dragging/Lense-Thirring phenomenon is one of the most fascinating areas of modern fundamental physics investigation. I can't wait to see how it all pans out, and what implications it all may hold for GR and Mach's Principle...at the boundaries of our models of reality, enticing new truths await discovery...

yeah, aren't they supposed to have them marked, graded, recorded and returned by the next class period?

New Scientist has posted this interview
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinio.../mg18624931.300

With Francis Everitt, the head scientist behind Gravity Probe B, which was launched a year ago, and will return results in four or five months.

It gives some insight as to how this very long project came together, and what this guys life has been like. I enjoyed this interview quite a bit.

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I've been following the mission since before it launched. I was really worried when the recent solar flare activity disrupted the probe, but thankfully they were able to fully recover. I can't wait for the final results of this and WMAP year 2, 3 and onward data.

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...and we'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent life forms everywhere; and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys...

I agree. There are quite a few really good bits of information being processed at this time. I am anxious to see the results.

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Gravity Probe B mission, testing Einstein's theory of gravity, completes first year in space

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Happy Birthday B

The Gravity Probe B website indicates that they will run out of Helium in the Dewar at the beginning of September. They have got about 48 weeks so far of being in science mode, and the final week or so will be the final callibration.

The website says the following about when the results will be published:

That's a long time from now, but at least it isn't as open ended as the WMAP year-two and polarization data.

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April of 2007?

The mathematics of the gravity B probe are tough, but not that tough. More importantly, the algorythms for data reduction should have been finalized before the probe was even launched. Information on the B probe site intimated a much sooner release.

This should have been true for the WMAP Data reduction as well. When the PI's take years to do data analysis, all sorts of Von Engle factors can be pirated in that have the potential of reversing the true results of the experiment.

WMAP did this with the first release - changing the expected power function of the secondary peak by introducing new parameters - this occurred before the data collection was completed, but they changed the expectations because the Boomerang balloon had already demonstrated the secondary peak was highly constrained, in at least part of the sky. (http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0312570)

Personally, I expect affirmative results from the B-probe, but I would like to be more certain that the 'blind' checks that the PI's built into the analysis are followed. Two years of massaging data before it is released does not inspire confidence.

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