"Jonathan Silverlight" wrote
in message ...
In message , George Dishman
writes

The data from Pioneer is sent back by radio. The power is
nominally 8W, a little more than a mobile phone. The radiation
pressure from the beam is about 13% of the magnitude of the
anomaly but the beam pushes the craft away from the Earth while
the anomaly is an acceleration towards the Earth. This is why
asymmetric thermal radiation from the RTGs was looked at as a
possible explanation, they emit a couple of kW altogether. The
trouble was that nobody could figure out how to explain the
asymmetry.

Doesn't Ned Wright claim otherwise? You only need 60 watts to produce
the effect.

Yes. 8W is about 13% of Anderson's figure of 63W.

The RTGs produce about 2070W of heat so if that was
split 1003W towards the Sun and 1067W away from it,
that could explain the effect.

And Bertotti et al. state that solar radiation pressure on
Cassini is about an order of magnitude less than the RTGs thermal
thrust, and quote a figure of 175 watts for the solar power. OTOH,
Cassini has 20 x the mass of Pioneer.

I haven't had a chance to look at that paper yet.
Is it available on-line without a subscription?

George