SCI/TECH: Satellite to Test Einstein Predictions.

In what will seemingly be the most expensive scientific experiment to historical date, costing nearly $750+ millon, proposed 45 years ago, on April 17, 2004, NASA will be launching a satellite thats intended purpose is to test two of Einstein's fundemental predictions: that space and time can be warped or twisted.

Satellite to Test Einstein Predictions

The unmanned, Earth-orbiting satellite is designed to test two of Einstein's predictions about the nature of space and time, and how the Earth and other bodies warp and twist the fabric that combines the two.

At the spacecraft's heart are four pingpong-sized balls of quartz, the most perfect spheres ever made. To ensure accuracy, the balls must be kept chilled to near absolute zero, in the vacuum of the largest thermos ever flown in space, and isolated from any disturbances in the quietest environment ever produced, said Anne Kinney, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's division of astronomy and physics.

Once in space and set spinning, the orientation of the balls should change unless Einstein was wrong.

Hopefully NASA has accounted for Murphy's Law because with NASA, the use of should is literally troublesome.

Related Information
Gravity Probe B:Testing Einstein's Universe
ELV Missions
Gravity Probe B: The Relativity Mission

[Edited on 3-4-2004 by Seekerof]

awesome!i dont get about the quarts though. is it going to move if hes right or if hes wrong?

I know it's re-hashing an old thread but recent stories:
Einstein predictions on time and space...
Higgs Boson particle found??......
9/11 enquiry....(pearl harbour got them in WWII !)


so time dilation and America finding out some horrible home truths before the election...........
>
>
>
John Titor, etc.?

I think it basically amounts to rolling a marble and if it wobbles to one side or the other, than Einstein was correct in saying that space-time are curved/warped and if it does not wobble to one side or the other, than Einstein was perhaps wrong. I think they are talking mere thousandths of an inch(es)?

If this experiment proves that Einstein is wrong, it will most certainly lead to a whole new set of questions concerning space-time theories.


seekerof

[Edited on 3-4-2004 by Seekerof]

Iwas looking on the bbc site and found this topic you beat me to it heres anouther link

A satellite that will put Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity to the test is ready to be launched.
Nasa hopes Gravity Probe B will lift off from California on 17 April.
Since it was first proposed in 1959, the project has been aborted and delayed because of technical hiccups many times.

link
link2

Potato' Earth's deep secrets

The sweep of colours shows minute variations in the Earth's gravitational field. If you were to fly over the red areas, you would be tugged ever so slightly downwards; the blues mark regions where the planet's attraction is much weaker.

link
link2


[Edited on 3-4-2004 by SE7EN]