# Do space probes need to account for any relatavistic effects? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 6, 2004, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-space-probes-need-to-account-for-any-relatavistic-effects/273420 "2004-11-06T23:33:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-space-probes-need-to-account-for-any-relatavistic-effects/273420/21 "2004-11-07T21:09:23Z")
Actually, as [the most recent examination](http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/gr-qc/pdf/0104/0104064.pdf) (a big pdf) of the Pioneer anomaly by the those doing the tracking makes clear, the JPL tracking model does include relativistic effects - see section IV, A. However, there’s nothing in there to suggest that these effects are actually significant in practice. State of the art in generating an ephemeris will be such that the programmes incorporating the corrections will be available to the JPL anyway and it’s probably easier just to use them. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2004, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-space-probes-need-to-account-for-any-relatavistic-effects/273420/22 "2004-11-07T23:33:36Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Just to pick a nit, probes don’t go 0.01c. They go 0.01%c or 0.0001c. That would make the time correction even less noticeable or significant. Well, I did say my calculations were.“extremely rough”. Uh, so _there_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-space-probes-need-to-account-for-any-relatavistic-effects/273420.md?page=1)