Abstract
Milani et al. recently have published careful and fundamental studies of the accuracy with which both gravitational physics information and the solar quadrupole moment can be obtained from Earth-Mercury distance data. To complement these results, a quite different analysis method is used in the present paper. We calculate the first-order corrections to the Keplerian motion of a single planet around the Sun due to the parameterized post-Newtonian theory parameters , , , , and , as well as corrections due to the solar quadrupole moment and a possible secular change in . The Nordtvedt parameter that is used in tests of the strong equivalence principle also is included in this analysis. The expected accuracies are given for 1 yr, 2 yr, and 8 yr mission durations, assuming that the planet-planet and asteroid-planet perturbations are accurately known. The “modified worst-case” error analysis method that we use is quite different from the usual covariance analysis method based on assumed uncorrelated random errors, plus a bias that is fixed or that changes in a prescribed way. We believe this is appropriate because systematic measurement errors are likely to be the main limitation on the accuracy of the results. Our final estimated uncertainties are one-third of the errors that would result if a 4.5-cm rms systematic error had the most damaging possible variation with time. We discuss the resulting uncertainties for several different subsets of orbital and relativity parameters.
- Received 28 February 2005
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.75.022001
©2007 American Physical Society