Hyperbolic orbits of Earth flybys and effects of ungravity-inspired conservative potentials

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether ungravity-inspired conservative potentials can explain the Earth flyby anomaly, concluding that such potentials cannot account for the observed velocity shifts based on orbital simulations and data constraints.

Contribution

It provides a critical analysis of ungravity-inspired potentials and their inability to explain the flyby anomaly, offering constraints on model parameters from observational data.

Findings

Ungravity-inspired potentials do not reproduce the flyby anomaly.

Constraints on ungravity model parameters from flyby data.

Conservative potentials are unlikely to explain the anomaly.

Abstract

In this work we take a critical look at the available data on the flyby anomaly and on the current limitations of attempts to develop an explanation. We aim to verify how conservative corrections to gravity could affect the hyperbolic trajectories of Earth flybys. We use ungravity-inspired potentials as illustrative examples and show how the resulting orbital simulations differ from the observed anomaly. We also get constraints on the model parameters from the observed flyby velocity shifts. The conclusion is that no kind of conservative potential can be the cause of the flyby anomaly.