The Fly-By Anomaly - another Mystery of Gravity Explained

Let us start with the ‘basic’ slingshot effect. As a spacecraft approaches a planet on a “fly-by”, one might think “of course it speeds up because of gravitational attraction to the planet”.  It is not that simple however, because as the craft passes and moves beyond the planet, it would be slowed down by an equal amount!  There is no net gain in velocity, so the planet’s gravity alone, does not explain how “slingshot” manoeuvres work.  

They don’t know exactly why, but the effect correlates with the planet’s velocity relative to the sun.   These things can be calculated so the rocket scientists were happy in their predictive ability.  The “why” of the basic “slingshot effect” is perfectly analogous to the type of slingshot depicted below.  Motion of the ropes and pouch accelerate a stone; then one rope is released, freeing the stone and allowing it to ‘fly’ ahead.

Energy links which pervade the cosmos are one-dimensional and exert a pull.  They are discussed on almost every page of this site, beginning with “Gravity links to Billions of Stars”.

It is the motion of a planet orbiting the sun and energy links between planet and spacecraft that accelerate the craft.  If the spacecraft has a complimentary trajectory, it gets a boost. 

As the craft passes beyond the planet, ‘one is still going along with the other’ so the extra acceleration gained on approach is only slightly cancelled on departure. The energy links joining them are always breaking, but now fewer are replaced (inverse square law); freeing the spacecraft and allowing it to ‘fly’ ahead.  Inertia has established extra links on the ‘front’ of the spacecraft, by which the stars keep pulling it forward at the increased velocity. 

Almost every spacecraft executing a “fly-by” of a planet to speed it on its way to a distant destination speeds up too much!  The “slingshot” manoeuvres work as expected, but gain up to an extra 3.9 mm/sec.  

The “extra” and unexpected boost is merely a variation on the same theme. In this case, the accelerant is not the planet’s motion around the sun, but spin of the planet.

The ‘new’ and unexpected part now becomes obvious when considering energy links between the spacecraft and the planet’s equator.

The equator’s circular motion through space is faster than any other part of the earth and is spinning away from the craft as it approaches.  (Diagram below). The planet’s spin adds still more pull to these links on approach.  Maximum boost would be obtained if the approach is in the equatorial plane. Unfortunately, most of that boost would be cancelled as the satellite moves past the earth.

The trick is in the inclinations of satellite trajectory to the equator; small on approach – big on departure.  

By approaching from ‘above’ and ‘behind’, there is only slight inclination and the boost occurs (diagram below). The spacecraft trajectory gets bent by the earth’s gravity and it leaves the earth on a path much less parallel to the equator, so the extra acceleration gained on approach is only partially cancelled on departure.  The craft gains a net unexpected boost in velocity. 

Incidentally, the earth’s spin also attempts to drag space-time around with it but the energy links keep breaking and being replaced. 

For a planet of this size, too few links are surviving at any given instant; so the ‘warp’ is too small to explain the extra “fly-by” boost.

JPL scientists have developed a mathematical formula (apparently by trial and error) that accurately reproduces all five instances where a flyby anomaly has been observed so far.  It offers no clue as to the underlying mechanism, other than somehow being correlated with earth spin, but guess what?  The formula involves the angle that the spacecraft’s incoming and outgoing trajectories make with respect to the earth’s equator.

Only the energy links unique to the Starpulls Theory can explain the mechanism, as they have for any ‘new’ effect reported over the last 7 years.