Toward a satellite mission to determine the source of the Cosmic Microwave Background – a scientific-philosophical risk analysis

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is generally assumed to have a cosmic origin. This assumption has been put into question around the beginning of this century by Pierre-Marie Robitaille, who attributes the CMB monopole signal instead to the oceans of the Earth. Despite his various attempts to reach out to the astrophysics community about this matter, an active dialogue on it is still missing in academia. To break through this impasse, Jim Keller recently initiated a collaboration with a group of individuals with the aim to experimentally test Robitaille’s theories by means of different satellites. In this white paper, I argue why the determination of the CMB monopole’s origin deserves special attention amongst these envisioned satellite missions. Subsequently, the white paper focuses on the risk that such a satellite mission might not be taken seriously by the scientific community, even if its execution and outcome is successful. This risk is illustrated by the public reception – or better the lack thereof – of Paris Herouni’s measurements that suggest the absence of the CMB monopole at the location of his ROT-54/2.6 antenna. Likewise, various defense mechanisms from conventionalists may be expected to discredit the satellite mission, in an attempt to protect the standard cosmological model from any harm. In order to deal with this countermovement in a structured manner, I propose classifying the defense mechanisms into six categories. Because each of them forms a significant risk to the future public reception of the satellite project, I subsequently suggest several strategies to prevent and mitigate them. Finally, I discuss how ground-based experiments form a complementary approach to investigate the CMB monopole origin. The scientific-philosophical risk classification and mitigation methodology proposed in this white paper is also applicable to other experimental work challenging the scientific consensus, making it relevant to non-standard science in general.