Anderson et al. Reply (to the Comment by Katz on Pioneer 10/11)

TL;DR

This paper refutes Katz's hypothesis that anisotropic heat reflection from the spacecraft's antennae explains the Pioneer anomaly, concluding it lacks sufficient power to account for the observed effects.

Contribution

It provides a critical analysis showing that heat reflection cannot explain the Pioneer anomaly, clarifying the limits of thermal effects in spacecraft navigation anomalies.

Findings

Katz's heat reflection hypothesis is insufficient to explain the Pioneer anomaly.

Thermal power from RTGs does not account for the observed acceleration.

The paper clarifies the need to explore alternative explanations.

Abstract

We conclude that Katz's proposal (anisotropic heat reflection off of the back of the spacecraft high-gain antennae, the heat coming from the RTGs) does not provide enough power and so can not explain the Pioneer anomaly.