It has been proposed that a tetrahedral configuration of satellites can be used to detect certain types of deviations from Newtonian gravity.

This simulation does just that, runs a tetrahedral configuration in heliocentric orbit, while measuring the trace of the gravitational gradient tensor. It should be zero. It really isn't zero, as a result of measurement and numerical uncertainties, but how close to zero can it get? Check out the various configurations that have been hardcoded in this implementation.

To run the simulation, just click Play/Pause.

• Open TETRA or its (much slower) big decimal version
• source code
• Read the manuscript or the published paper