MEASUREMENT OF GRAVITATIONAL INTERACTION PARAMETERS ON AN EARTH-ORBITING SATELLITE

An analysis is presented of a space experiment whose purpose is to enh ance the accuracy of measurement of the gravitational constant G, impr ove the estimates of the fifth force parameters alpha and lambda, and finally to verify the equivalence principle. The experiment involves e xact measurements of the trajectories of a light body relative to a he avy body on a drag-free Earth satellite. Estimations of the possible e ffect of various factors on the relative motion trajectory are made. T he equations of relative motion are derived for various types of satel lite orbits. Some preliminary estimates of the accuracy of the measure ments are presented which show that the experiment proposed seems to h old promise.