Perturbation of heliosynchronous orbits in stable Kaluza-Klein theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a hypothesized coupling between gravity and electromagnetism could perturb heliosynchronous orbits, but finds the predictions inconsistent with satellite data, challenging the theory's validity.

Contribution

It analyzes the effects of gravity-electromagnetism coupling on heliosynchronous orbits within classical mechanics, providing a test against observational data.

Findings

Predicted orbit perturbations are inconsistent with SPOT satellite measurements.

The coupling model does not align with observed orbital stability.

Results challenge the validity of the proposed GE coupling in this context.

Abstract

Although the methods and techniques have been greatly improved since the late nineteenth century, the precision on the measurement of the gravitational constant G does not exceed 1 part in 1000. Intrinsic variations of G caused by the geomagnetic field may explain the observed dispersion of the laboratory measurements. This involves a coupling between gravitation and electromagnetism (hereafter GE coupling) and a dependance of the effective G constant with latitude and longitude. In this paper I analyse the effects of this coupling in the framework of classical space mechanics by focusing on heliosynchronous orbits. The predictions are found inconsistent with experimental data from the SPOT mission.