The Pioneer Anomaly: The Data, its Meaning, and a Future Test

The radio‐metric Doppler tracking data from the Pioneer 10/11 spacecraft, from between 20–70 AU, yields an unambiguous and independently confirmed anomalous blue shift drift of at = (2.92 ± 0.44) × 10−18 s/s2. It can be interpreted as being due to a constant acceleration of aP = (8.74 ± 1.33) × 10−8 cm/s2 directed towards the Sun. No systematic effect has been able to explain the anomaly, even though such an origin is an obvious candidate. We discuss what has been learned (and what might still be learned) from the data about the anomaly, its origin, and the mission design characteristics that would be needed to test it. Future mission options are proposed.