Why was the STEP mission canceled and are similar missions planned?

  • Level: Graduate 
  • Thread starter Thread starter jumpjack
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Mystery
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
Sign up Log in
1 reply · 2K views
jumpjack
Messages
223
Reaction score
3
"STEP" mission

Does anybody know why http://einstein.stanford.edu/STEP/" was canceled, and if any similar one is planned for next years?

STEP will advance the testing of the Equivalence Principle from several parts in 1013 to 1 part in 1018. Whether it confirms Equivalence five to six orders of magnitude more precisely than known today or discovers a violation, it will be a landmark experiment in Fundamental Physics, with consequences extending from gravitation theory to cosmology to theories of the evolution of the Universe. It will probe a large and otherwise inaccessible domain in the parameter space of new interactions. A null result would remain for many years a severe constraint on new theories. A positive result would constitute the discovery of a new force of Nature.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Astronomy news on Phys.org

Discussion



No idea, but if I had to guess I would say it was canceled due to funding issues.