MBehave wrote:Only hyperbole is saying NASA when its actually ESA.
Look up Search for Anomalous Gravitation using Atomic Sensors
If funding is approved(they can keep it within X cost) a probe will be given Quantum Gravity sensors and ejected from the solar system, its job to map the density of objects too dark and small to detect from Earth and to map the density of the Kupier belt.
SAGAS isn't a planned mission, merely a proposal. I hope it does become a real mission, because it looks very interesting. However, what I read doesn't support your claim that atomic accelerometers would be easily able to detect ship-mass objects in real time.
For those who don't have the time or inclination to read the
40 page proposal, it proposes a spacecraft that would carry an atomic clock, an atomic accelerometer (a.k.a. "quantum gravity sensor"), and a laser communication link, which would fly a mission of between
15 to 20 years, on an escape trajectory at a distance of between
39 to 53 AU (that's Pluto distance and beyond) from the Sun, with the following objectives:
- Test Fundamental Physics Constants
- Explore the Gravitational Terrain of the Outer Solar System
- Measure the total mass of the Kuiper Belt
- Measure the Kuiper Belt Mass Distribution
- Measure the masses of individual Kuiper Belt Objects with close flybys
- Study the effects of gravity of the outer planets
The proposal lays out pretty clearly that such extreme distances are required to avoid the interference of the Sun's strong gravitational signal, but also that the mapping of the Kuiper Belt will be only on the large scale (total mass and general mass distribution), except in the cases where the spacecraft can accurately map the masses of individual KBO's by passing very close to them. Here is the relevant section:
In short, the diffuse gravitational signal from the huge number of objects makes it very difficult to measure the signal of an individual object, unless you get pretty close to each one. The listed uncertainly in the measurement of the mass of Ixion, even at 0.2 AU, is many orders of magnitude greater than the mass of the largest Outsider starship.
We can expect TL10 accelerometers to be more sensitive than what is available today, but I think it's still going to be a very difficult task to identify ship-size masses amongst the clutter of a star system, especially when you're typically less than 5 AU from the star.
Additionally, I didn't see anything here to support the claim that gravitational detection methods operate at faster-than-light speeds.