First meeting at ISSI was conducted during the period of 7-11 November 2005

    Attendance: by invitation only

The meeting is envisioned in three parts with the First part being in a form of a mini-tutorial on spacecraft navigation and data analysis, and will address the following topics:

1. Capabilities of the DSN complex for radio-science data collection, navigational data-types, spacecraft systems and their performance, attitude control, stabilization, mission design, etc.;
2. Radio-science data collection and conditioning; data editing, calibration, assembly of the entire dataset; spacecraft telemetry data on power, sensors; data on maneuvers and significant mission events, etc.;
3. Modeling of the spacecraft motion: gravitational models, media effects, solar corona and standard models for small forces; formulation of observables and their practical implementation in hardware, etc.;
4. Spacecraft orbit determination and control including computer algorithms for orbit determination, parameter estimation algorithms, treatment of dynamical noises, etc.;
5. Tutorial on data processing and analysis using small set of the Pioneer radio-metric data, identification of the anomalous residuals and developing strategy for their investigation, etc.

Second part will address mechanisms and theories to explain the anomaly:

1. Strategies for the upcoming Pioneer data analysis: what do we want to learn?, how do we plan the experiment?, what do we expect?, do we have the right data?, etc.
2. Discussion of mechanisms suggested to explain the anomaly, their physical origin and implication, advantages and weaknesses;
3. If justified, development of science requirements for the mission to explore the Pioneer anomaly: what are the observables?, how do we get them?, at what data rate?, from what distance?, on what trajectory?, and etc. How do we use this information to satisfy our science objectives?

Third part will focus on a potential test to explore the Pioneer anomaly:

1. Discussion of critical spacecraft sybsystems and instruments used to control, measure, compensate, and calibrate the effect of various small forces acting on the vehicle, including oveview of accelerometers, power systems, thermal design challenges, attitude control issues, advantages and limitations of laser ranging and optical metrology, future navigational capabilities, interferometers and drag-free systems, mission design and launch systems, etc.

We plan to invite experts to cover topics in the first part, to solicit contributions for the second part, and to ask team members to lead the efforts in the third part of the program.

We also will discuss reports on the progress in acheived in the subgroups established at our meeting at ESA/ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 21 April 2005.