1.111 mm/s at perigee! Champagne is ready to go ;-)

Units should be mm/s, my bad!

No problem Edward! I have a great sense of humour :-) Besides, you have plenty of time to read my paper after the flyby results are public. My kind advice… sit while you read ;-)

Pzatchok,

The gravitational variations in the density and elevations of the Earth are well mapped and included in orbit equations. These variations are even used to routinely change orbital planes ( e.g. so that a spacecraft can be constantly in sunshine — called a sun-synchronous orbit).

My first thought was that the lunar influences were miscalculated (a three-body equation has been elusive), but that seemed rather unlikely, given the large number of accurate calculations given by the many orbital calculators.

Although I do not understand how spacecraft spin affects orbital mechanics, Kimmo Rouvari’s hypothesis/theory seems more plausible than anything I can think of (such as influence by “space aliens” who are just messing with our minds).

Unfairly, I am making these comments without having read Rouvari’s “Theory of Everything by illusion,” perhaps because it just seems illusory to me (pun intended — in fact, the whole reason for this sentence was to make that pun — I hope you take this with amusement, Kimmo).

As a craft moves past the Earth if it passes over the Himalayas the surface would be closer to the craft than if it passed by over the open flat ocean.

More mass miles closer to the craft causes an increase in the working gravity.