Calibration and Test of the World's Most Accurate Gyroscope

Gaylord Green, Jeremy Kasdin, Mac Keiser

Abstract:	Gravity Probe B (GP-B) is a NASA experiment to use gyroscopes to test Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. In 1959, L.I. Schiff, then a professor of physics at Stanford University used the theory to predict that an inertial frame in free-fall about the Earth would undergo two orthogonal rotations with respect to the universe’s inertial (fixed) frame - not predicted by Newton’s theory. For a 65Okn-1, polar orbit, the curvature of space-time produced by the Earth results in the geodetic drift of 6.6 arcsec/year in the orbit plane. A second drift, called the frame-dragging effect, of 42 milliarcsec/year occurs perpendicular to the orbit plane and arises due to a dragging of space time by the spinning Earth.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 1991 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 22 - 24, 1991 Sheraton San Marcos Hotel Phoenix, AZ
Pages:	217 - 227
Cite this article:	Green, Gaylord, Kasdin, Jeremy, Keiser, Mac, "Calibration and Test of the World's Most Accurate Gyroscope," Proceedings of the 1991 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Phoenix, AZ, January 1991, pp. 217-227.
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