NASA Gives Up On Pioneer 10

Soft writes "Another Energizer Bunny has finally given out: Pioneer 10's generators have decayed to the point that DSN can no longer detect the probe's signals. It was the first spacecraft to penetrate the asteroid belt (1972) and fly by Jupiter (1973). So long and thanks for all the pic's..."

The Real Reason:

[DasBub]

It's tired of hearing about Linux kernel releases every ten minutes.

Sorry slashdot..

[grub]

But I won't believe Pioneer 10 is dying until Netcraft confirms it..

I kind of expected to read

[Argon]

So long and thanks for all the fish :-)

Such pessimism..

[TeknoHog]

Just because we can't hear its signals doesn't mean THEY don't. /me looks forward to the return of P'neer.

Pioneer when you see

[nlinecomputers]

...the Klingon bird of prey decloak, DUCK!

It's Done For?

[rice_web]

So, it's just dying out there? And what about our other "deep-space" probes? Yep, on the death bed.

So, using rice_web's ingenious stupidity, I've come up with:

(1) Send a new probe to follow our dying probes and act as a relay for the information.

(2) Just completely start over and get new probes up and running, and moving more quickly than our dying probes.

Pioneer 10 isn't dead....

[Sergeant Beavis]

It was just Slashdotted, that's all.

Watch, in 5 years, someone will hear from it again.

Netcraft Confirms...

[Anonymous Coward]

It is official; Netcraft confirms: Pioneer 10 is dying

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Pioneer 10 community when IDC confirmed that Pioneer 10 market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all web browsers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that Pioneer 10 has lost more market share , this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Pioneer 10 is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict Pioneer 10's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Pioneer 10 faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Pioneer 10 because Pioneer 10 is dying . Things are looking very bad for Pioneer 10. As many of us are already aware, Pioneer 10 continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

Dada s///g is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time Netscape developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Pioneer 10 is dying .

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

Pioneer 10.org leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of Pioneer 10. How many users of Galeon are there? Let's see. The number of Pioneer 10 versus Galeon posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 Galeon users. Chimera posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of Galeon posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of Chimera. A recent article put Netscape 6 at about 80 percent of the Pioneer 10 market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 Netscape 6 users. This is consistent with the number of Netscape 6 usenet posts.

Due to the troubles of Pioneer 10, abysmal sales and so on, Netscape went out of business and will probably be taken over by AOL who sell another troubled browser. Now AOL is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

All major surveys show that Pioneer 10 has steadily declined in market share. Pioneer 10 is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Pioneer 10 is to survive at all it will be among browser dilettante dabblers. Pioneer 10 continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Pioneer 10 is dead.

Fact: Pioneer 10 is dying

Its a Lie

[bastardman]

I just detected that probe the other day... wait... perhaps that was a different kind of probe. Never mind then.

Re:Distance.

[digital bath]

Well said.
I wonder if someday we will pick Pioneer up again, or just let it drift forever. Were all probes sent with the "mankind peace" plaque? (the one that depicts a man and women and some other stuff that I can't remember)

Verizon Commercials

[dmuth]

Did anyone else read that and think of the Verizon Wireless commercials?

"Can you hear me NOW?!?"

Re:So long old friend

[Anonymous Coward]

So sad, now it is only good for Klingon target practice. :(

Pioneer 10, Dead at 55

[egg troll]

I just heard some sad news on talk radio this morning. It seems that space probe Pioneer 10 was found dead in its distant space home this morning. Even if you didn't enjoy its photos of our planets, there's no denying its contribution to astronomy. Truly an engineering icon.

No need to worry

[kfg]

They're only coming to serve man.

KFG

ObHHGTG

[jpetts]

2 million years eh?

Just time for another bath! Pass me the sponge, would you?

Re:Not too shocking...

[mahart]

I wish our legacy had better pornography [nasa.gov] on it

30 years, that's nothing...

[Anonymous Coward]

Pah! That's not so special. My car is over 30 years old and it's still going. OK, the mileage is not as high but Pioneer 10 didn't have to worry about corrosion. In space, nobody can hear you rust.

Pioneer 10 is dying...

[dfenstrate]

Netcraft comfirms it.

(you can shoot me now)

DON'T MAKE ME RE-LIVE BATTLEFIELD EARTH!

[Myriad]

I worry that we're leaving a trial of breadcrumbs for conquering alien races to find us. fight the future.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! No, make the pain stop! You are causing me a Battlefield Earth flashback! Not only did I watch that evil movie, I've read the damned book years before.

Don't you know that's exactly how Psychlo's found Earth in the first place?

Can I believe that I actually know that? Please, shoot me now before the Hubbard cultists get me!

Re:It's still serving part of its mission.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow! Humans are *hot*!

Re:am I the only one

[phillymjs]

Moreover, many think it's profoundly unlikely any alien races would be interested in conquering us.

I'm more worried about them seeing stuff like "American Idol," "Survivor," and "Joe Millionaire," and deciding we should all be exterminated, not subjugated.

We can only hope that their positive perception of our race from the 13 years of Simpsons episodes we've pumped out can withstand the damage the later shows will do to it. :-)

~Philly

Re:82,000 mph !!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

the trouble is you have to expend a lot of power to stop somewhere. Not a problem if the people don't intend to come back.

Re:Am I missing something here?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because in just a few hundred years it will return as a massive self-aware being, destroying everything in its path.

I say we bow down and worship our new metallic master before we incur its wrath.

Woudn't be worth the trip??

[Phantasmo]

the effort and expenditure of resources to get from there to here would probably mean the payoff for attacking us wouldn't be worth the trip.

My friend, you seem to be forgetting our [geocities.com] vast amounts of stable Energon [geocities.com]!

Re:Voyager had a disc.

[MAXOMENOS]

Chuck Berry? Man, that's got to be a hell of an honor for ol' Chuck.

I imagine the first interstellar war will start when an alien civilization "pirates" that copyrighted Chuck Berry recording and the MPAA comes to collect royalties.

Re:am I the only one

[edunbar93]

I'm more worried about them seeing stuff like "American Idol," "Survivor," and "Joe Millionaire," and deciding we should all be exterminated, not subjugated.

Especially if they're a race of ultra-violent beings who can't stand to miss a single episode? :)

Re:Never again, anything like it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oops, it did! September 1995. Damn Klingons!

Re:Distance.

[Paradise Pete]

You build a huge ship and start leaving earth today, then 10 years later another group does. They by then have developed a faster earth ship, and soon pass you by.

Same deal with some complex computing problems. The best strategy for solving one is to wait for faster computers to be invented.

Re:Radioisotopes

[Mark (ph'x)]

Great.. now instead of toshiba notebooks burning my lap, they will also irradiate my genitalia and give me mutated children!

Re:communication via relay?

[MyHair]

("Break your satellite? Need new parts? Just order on the universe wide web at uww.spaceparts.com!")

Probably more like uww.spaceparts.co.tx.us.sol.arm17.milkyway . :-) Unfortunately the latency for the nearest root DNS server is 217 years.

So let's go pick it up.

[blair1q]

Just jump in the hyperdrive and go grab it and download it.

We do have hyperdrive, right?

I mean, it's 2003.

We were supposed to be mining Jupiter's moons by now.

We can't go get one little probe?

What have we been doing with the last 30 years?

Re:So long old friend

[aliens]

Cause we all know you can't accomplish anything unless you don't listen to that satan worshipping hardcore or that terrorist supporting hiphop. These kids now adays are a bunch of unworthy anti-americans.

Only those people who continue to live in the 50's can possibly bring our great civilization forward. Right?

The thing that hobbles NASA is the politicians and their demand for big results combined with the huge cuts in budget.

I can't stand closed minded people. I'm sure you can work dilligently and continuously, you must be a blast to have as a friend.

Re:Goddamn

[Anonymous Coward]

Right, sending Pioneer 10 into outer space is the greatest accomplishment mankind has ever achieved. Equality under law, suffrage for women, the abolishment of slavery, the virtual eradication of smallpox; they all pale in insignificance compared to Pioneer 10, a hunk of metal drifting aimlessly through space.

Yep!

Re:when I grow up, I want to be an orbital mechani

[Anonymous Coward]

Look dude the guy is right on. When they built stuff in the 50's and 60's they built them tough
and reliable. the word "overbuilt" was not in thier vocabuary. The sr71 was the fastest thing in
the sky and if you discount missiles it still is unless perhaps the aurora is operational.

the b52 is still in use for basicly the same mission it had in the 50's. Parts still fall off commercial airliners less than half the 52's age.

THEY WENT TO THE FUCKING MOON AND BACK WITH SLIDE RULES! Damn your a fucking troll!

Somewhere at NASA...

[darnok]

...an old geeky guy picks up his Coke, brushes the pizza crumbs off his gut, brushes spider web out of his waist length greasy hair, pushes his chair back and says "OK, who's gonna beat THIS uptime?"

Re:am I the only one

[hcdejong]

If they can fly at FTL speeds, not missing a single episode is trivial. Just fly to the point to where the broadcast you want has traveled.

Mitnick hacked it off course

[Anonymous Coward]

and you know that's the truth.

Re:communication via relay?

[way2trivial]

Its simply not possible.
Historically, the most inspirational statement possible.

Re:Rest in peace

[AKnightCowboy]

Pioneer isn't dead as long as its moving and carrying that plaque as its one final message from us.

Doesn't the plaque say something along the lines of "Hot man on woman action on the third planet from Sol. Our women are submissive and our men are dolts with small penises. You'll have no problem turning these chicks into your love slaves." Put some pants on those folks next time you go firing off plaques into space!

Re:Klingon target practice

[Walterk]

So is this going to mean there'll be a big war between V'ger and P'ner?

Re:Distance.

[TGK]

Or maybe the Aliens will send a giant probe that will send ultrasonic messages into the oceans in an attempt to get a certain harmonic to occur in New Zion.

Of course this will disrupt earths weather pattersn and the AI will send someone back in time to 1980s San Fransisco in order to capture two completely sentient members of the human race.

This is getting confusing. I wonder if they'll run into Sara Conner.

Re:So long old friend

[Erbo]

So sad, now it is only good for Klingon target practice.

Shooting space garbage is no test of a warrior's mettle!