Explanation of Gravity Probe B Experimental Results using Heaviside-Maxwellian (Vector) Gravity in Flat Space-time (2002.12124v2)

Abstract: The Gravity Probe B (GP-B) Experiment of NASA was aimed to test the theoretical predictions of Einstein's 1916 relativistic tensor theory of gravity in curved space-time (General Relativity (GR)) concerning the spin axis precession of a gyroscope moving in the field of a slowly rotating massive body, like the Earth. In 2011, GP-B mission reported its measured data on the precession (displacement) angles of the spin axes of the four spherical gyroscopes housed in a satellite orbiting 642 km (400 mi) above the Earth in polar orbit. The reported results are in agreement with the predictions of GR. For the first time, here we report an undergraduate level explanation of the GP-B experimental results using Heaviside-Maxwellian (vector) Gravity (HMG) in flat space-time, first formulated by Heaviside in 1893, and later considered/re-discovered by many authors. Our new explanation of the GP-B results provides a new test of HMG apart from the existing ones, which deserves the attention of researchers in the field for its simplicity and new perspective.