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variations existed in all the interplanetary data, and that they are "The fact that the radio astronomers have been reluctant to forced to use empirical correction factors that have no theoretical acknowledge the full theoretical implications of their work is foundation." probably related to the unfortunate things that tend to happen to In a 1973 paper,*’ Wallace describes how the Lincoln Lab physicists that are rash enough to challenge Einstein's sacred introduced averaging to suppress the anomalous radar results and second postulate. Over twenty-three years have gone by since the refused to release the raw data to him, stonewalling his original Venus radar experiments clearly showed that the speed of investigation: light in space was not constant, and still the average scientist is not "The apparent improvement in the residuals for later years was aware of this fact! This demonstrates why it is important for the due to the fact that the Lab interpolated the 1964 Venus data to APS [American Physical Society] to bring true scientific freedom 12:00 UT and the 1967 data to one observation a day from 2:12 UT _ to the PR [Physical Review] journal's editorial policy." to 2:21 UT. The observing time for the 1961 data ranged from Supporting evidence comes from Ronald Hatch, who finds that 00:33 UT to 23:40 UT. The involved radar astronomers are pub- the NASA equations for interplanetary navigation follow his MLET licly claiming nearly complete agreement between their recent radar _ theory rather than special relativity:* analysis and general relativity, but my inves- "The experimental evidence is almost over- tigation reveals otherwise. whelming in support of the MLET view. "At the Fourth Texas Symposium of There is a large disjoint between the SRT the- Relativistic Astrophysics, I. I. Shapiro of the oO orists and the experimentalists. The SRT the- Lincoln Lab promised to send me any data I The fact that the orists continue to claim that the speed of light wanted. I read in an article published by the radio astronomers is automatically the velocity c and isotropic Lab that they had data for the same observing with respect to the moving observer or experi- dates covering a wide range of daily observ- have been reluctant to ment. But the SRT experimentalists do what ing times from both the MIT and USSR radar acknowledge the full is necessary to explain and make sense of the stations. I wrote Shapiro requesting this data . . . . measurements. The equations for tracking 2/13/69; his letters of 2/28/69 and 3/12/69 theoretical implications and navigating the interplanetary probes i d st. I made an issue of this i H A developed by the Jet Propulsion Laborat my leter to him of 3/20/69, and in his reply Onn “er it UPL) for NASA clearly follow the MLET of 3/27/69 he stated, 'Unfortunately the data pro al y related to template.” do not exist in the form in which you A Mr Wallace died on April 19, 1997, wanted them and, hence, I cannot honor the unfortunate things his findings ignored and thus neither your request.’ that tend to happen to confirmed nor refuted by the physics "Shapiro later sent me data that were wat establishment. The question remains: Is completely worthless for making an physicists that are rash the speed of light in interplanetary space objective test of the relative velocity of enough to challenge subject to systematic variations in time? Einstein's sacred second postulate." light in space. The data were from two It is therefore imperative that MIT radar stations in Massachusetts. systematic, high-precision speed-of-light The separation between them was only experiments be performed in Earth orbit 0.2' of longitude and 20.6" of latitude and interplanetary space. No such and the observations had been interpo- experiments have been carried out yet lated to 2:12 UT to 2:21 UT with only (why test a theory that you already know one observation per day. It seems obvi- is correct?) but majority opinion has ous that the Lab eliminated the varia- been changing lately. Attempts to tions by interpolating the data for each reconcile general relativity with day to the one observing time for that day that agreed with the gen- quantum theory have been a notable failure, and physicists have eral relativity prediction. One could use the same method to prove _—_ come to suspect that a unified field theory must involve "small" that a stopped clock keeps perfect time." violations of special and general relativity. A subsequent letter submitted to Physics Today on July 9, 1984, Miiller et al. state:°° was denied publication. Wallace has reproduced this letter in the "Special relativity (SR) underlies all accepted theories of nature Publication Politics chapter of his online book, The Farce of at the fundamental level. Therefore, it has been and must be tested Physics.™ In it, he writes: with ever-increasing precision to provide a firm basis for its future "The speed of light isc +"... application. Such tests are also motivated by the efforts to unify "During a current literature search, I requested and received a gravity with the other forces of nature, one of the outstanding open reprint of a paper (T. D. Moyer, Celes. Mech. 23:33 [1981] pub- challenges in modern science. In fact, many currently discussed lished by Theodore D. Moyer of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. models of quantum gravity do violate the principles of SR." The paper reports the methods used to obtain accurate values of This has finally created a renewed interest in testing both relativi- range observables for radio and radar signals in the solar system. ty theories experimentally to high precision. German physicists are The paper's (A6) equation and the accompanying information that currently designing the OPTIS mission,” a satellite carrying ultra- calls for evaluating the position vectors at the signal reception time high-precision experiments to test key assumptions and predictions is nearly equivalent to the Galilean c + v equation (2) in my paper, of relativity—among them, the isotropy and constancy of the speed "Radar Testing of the Relative Velocity of Light in Space" (B. G. of light. As expected, the OPTIS mission objective is to confirm Wallace, Spectros. Lett. 2:361 [1969]). The additional terms in the special and general relativity, or, at most, to find weak violations:* (A6) equation correct for the effects of the troposphere and charged "New unifying theories (e.g., the String Theory) predict small particles, as well as the general relativity effects of gravity and deviations from the Special and General Relativity. If such devia- velocity time dilation. tions could be found (e.g., an anisotropy of the speed of light), the probably related to the unfortunate things that tend to happen to physicists that are rash oe a a ed | Pee : enough to challenge Einstein's sacred 34 = NEXUS APRIL — MAY 2004 "The fact that the radio astronomers have been reluctant to second postulate." www.nexusmagazi ne.com