TWO-STAGE ‘slingshot amplifier’ can detect subtle gravitational deviations

Abstract

The possibility of setting up a space experiment aimed at detecting ultra-small deviations of the law of gravity of the central star of the planetary system from the Newton and Schwarzschild formats is demonstrated. The experiment comprises a ballistic flight of a space-probe along a trajectory composed of three treks divided by two gravity assist (GA) maneuvers at different planets, each GA acting as a powerful amplifier of the probe deflections caused by small deviations of the gravitational law. It is shown that the proposed (different) analytical and numerical computations of the probe's flight in a model of a planetary system simulating the Sun, Earth, and Venus, give similar results confirming a certain possibility to distinguish the forces of gravity described by the Schwarzschild and Eddington-Robertson metrics.