Satellite Test of the Isotrophy of the One-Way Speed of Light Using ExTRAS

Peter Wolf

Abstract:	A test of the second postdate of special relativity, the universality of the speed of light, wing the EXTRAS (Experiment on Timing Ranging and Atmospheric Sounding) payload to be flown en board a Russian Meteor-3M satellite (launch date January 1997) is proposed. The propagation time of a light signal transmitted from one point to another without reflection would be measured directly by comparing the phases of two hydrogen maser clocks, one on board and one on the ground, wing laser or microwave time transfer systems. An estimated uncertainty budget of the proposed measurements is given, resulting in an expected sensitivity of the experiment of &/c < 8x10^-10 which would be an improvement by a factor of - 430 over previous direct measurements and by a factor of - 4 over the best indirect measurement. The proposed test would require no equipment additional to what is already planned and so is of inherently low-cost. It could be carried out by anyone having access to a laser or microwave ground station and a hydrogen maser.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 26th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting December 6 - 8, 1994 Hyatt Regency Reston Town Center Reston, Virginia
Pages:	455 - 464
Cite this article:	Wolf, Peter, "Satellite Test of the Isotrophy of the One-Way Speed of Light Using ExTRAS," Proceedings of the 26th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Reston, Virginia, December 1994, pp. 455-464.
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