NASA Gives Up On Pioneer 10 610
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..."
Thats one old satelite (Score:2, Interesting)
Any one have any really really good pics its taken?
am I the only one (Score:5, Interesting)
So Long So Long Sorry to See you Go (Score:4, Interesting)
So Long
I'm Sorry to See You Go
I'm So Sad You Are Gone
I Dearly Miss Your Feeble Little Signal
You May Be Gone
But You Are In My Heart Forever
My Tears Will Follow You Wherever You Go
Lifespan? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Lifespan? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Distance. (Score:5, Interesting)
Not too shocking... (Score:5, Interesting)
Has SETI given up on it, too? I know they would do an informal test on their equipment by looking for the Pioneer 10 signal. SETI has been having problems tracking it for a few years at least... here's something Jill Tarter wrote about it. [msn.com]
If a nuclear war or asteroid or other event destroys all of humanity, probes like this will be our only legacy...
communication via relay? (Score:1, Interesting)
Imagine a chain of probes sent out in the same direction, all relaying information back to earth via one another. I wonder if any research has been done on the feasibility of such an approach...
Amateur time (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps all you amateurs with radio telescopes out there should ask NASA nicely (through whatever an organisation preferably) for the frequency and lcoation data that is not publicly available and do a big combined search.
Do you have procedures/software for doing VLBI? It would be a good project to do build it around if you do not already.
A few hours a day or days a month and you might still get some useful data from it.
Re:am I the only one (Score:5, Interesting)
Moreover, many think it's profoundly unlikely any alien races would be interested in conquering us. Even assuming others out there are hostile, 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.
It's also been argued that any extraterrestrial civilizations capable of detecting us will almost certainly be much older and more advanced (the thinking being that on the cosmic timescale, we're just starting off, and any civilization even a little younger than ours wouldn't have the tech to detect us, and the odds are high against another civ reaching this stage of development against the exact same time we do, so if they can hear us they've probably been around a while), and that (presumably, anyway) anyone so advanced wouldn't be warlike, so we'd probably have a lot more to gain than to lose from others finding out about us. I'm certainly no expert, but this does strike me as a fairly reasonable line of thought.
Ha! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Lifespan? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's when you start getting near things, like planets and stars, that things get dicey.
Pioneer is heading the other way, and there isn't any reason that it shouldn't drift on for millions of years, God willing and the crick don't rise none.
That's why they affixed the infamous plaque to it.
KFG
It's still serving part of its mission. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Radioisotopes (Score:5, Interesting)
You dont have a clue. A nuclear submarine has 1 battery compartment. This battery is your 50 gallon drum nuclear battery. Those types of batteries have a lifespan (in the submarine) of about 20 years. For that 20 years, it takes care of propulsion, air bladders, CO2 scrubbers, and the 90V AC (I cant remember the freq offhand).
For disposal, they seal these drums in bigger drums with the bottom of the bigger drum a lead/concrete mesh. They proceed to pour the similar mixture all around the barrel, sealing it totally. Then they lift it 2 miles down a hole in a mountain (Nevada). Once a floor is done, it's sealed by concrete and then a hatch is rivited and then soldered on.
For what it's worth, ALL the nuclear waste in the US would fit in the dimensions of the football field 6 feet deep. Compare that to COx, NOx, SOx and other organic crap floating from tailpipes. After what I've seen, nuclear is the safest fuel, given non-idiots tending the reactor. You've never heard of a US nuclear powered sub go critical and meltdown. You wonder why? They arent the dumbasses like 3MI. Island.
From somebody who knows a little too much.
Re:Rest in peace (Score:5, Interesting)
You know what I've always been looking for in the NASA site but could never get? Animated clips of its voyage (or that of Voyager's) and its fly-bys of the other planets. I always thought they would make really great looking screensavers to match my wallpapers of the shuttle. Anybody know where I can get them?
Keep on flyin Pioneer
Re:Goddamn (Score:2, Interesting)
Oh and by the way slavery has not been abolished in this world, neither has the issue of equal rights for women been dealt with properly. Smallpox is a great achievement, only problem is now it is being used to develop biological weapons, as is anthrax, botulism and and variety of little nasties.
When I posted I said the pioneer was an achievement that mankind can look on and say, "My (diety of choice) look where we have been, can we go further".
Re:82,000 mph !!!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Radioisotopes (Score:2, Interesting)
That doesnt matter. Remember the russian vessal, Kursk? There was a group of people that knew what happened even before the Russians knew. Sesmologists. They heard a 4Hz 'ripple' at that time, from the explosion of that uh air going to the 'top'.
From their models, they knew something exploded. And if you know your geometry, all you need to know is 3 places for near perfect position. From what they gathered, something exploded in the ocean. That something was quite deep. Sub.
A nuclear explosion would be totally unhidable. There's nuclear detection sattelites that can detect minute traces of any sub-major explosion. Did you know, that in the mid 70's somebody blew a 2 Kton dirty bomb at the south pole? The US nor the Russians didnt know who did it. We thought it was some 3'rd world dictatorship (similar to Hussein or Kadafee). We still havent figured that one out.
From somebody who knows a little too much.
Re:Thats one old satelite (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Never again, anything like it. (Score:3, Interesting)
The Voyager 1 [nasa.gov] probe is more distant than Pioneer 10, and will probably expire within 20 years.
Re:Never again, anything like it. (Score:4, Interesting)
I only wish I were as elegant in wording as Carl Sagan:
Reflections on a Mote of Dust
We succeeded in taking that picture, and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity--in all this vastness--there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.
It's been said that Astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
-- Carl Sagan (1934-1996)
You can see the image referred to in the article here [nasa.gov].
(In all honesty, I believe this image was from Voyager, but Pioneer had the same view and I felt it only appropriate.)
Fare well, Pioneer.
Re:Wow! (Score:2, Interesting)
This blows me away, and for some reason, I seem to think of it a lot. Perhaps it's my technical nature, in awe at the speed of progress.
1903 was the first powered flight. 1957 was the first artificial satellite. 1969 was walking on the moon.
Only 67 years between two bicycle mechanics essentially playing with a kite to walking on the moon! That boggles the mind!
What most senior citizens in todays world have been witness to, I cannot even begin to grasp the number of times they must have been collectively blown away at some new advancement or achievement.
I just hope that we all are fortunate enough to be witness to the same progress and achievement.
I'll bite. (Score:1, Interesting)
Twit. Oh hell, who am I kidding. The great early mathematicians who weren't Greek were Indian. Anyone remember Ramanujan? What about the scads of Asians in the field?
Sheesh.
It might have discovered anomolous gravity (Score:5, Interesting)
By the way, a similar anomoly is seen in Pioneer 11 and another distant satelite (Ulysses perhaps???).
Also, there is a link at nasa.gov, but at this time it seems broken. I include it for completeness here. [nasa.gov]
It seems John Anderson and friends have written several articles on this. One which you might find interesing has been published in Physical Review D: here. [aps.org]
Re:Notice there were no black people or women... (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, for one the first compiler was designed by a woman: Grace Hopper. If that is not a big contribution to the field of computing I don't know what it is.
African Americans have also had great impact in our society, wether you like it or not, and they are not just in the fields of humanities. And given the background of opression and lack of incentives that some of these people (minorities and women) had to endure just a few years ago, it is even more impressive.
BTW, what is your contribution to humanity TROLL?
Re:Rest in peace (Score:5, Interesting)
Quite a collector's item, eh? The 22nd Century equivalent of finding the Titanic. (Except that Pioneer 10 is an example of *good* engineering.)
Re:Distance. (Score:3, Interesting)
You have to have the ability to manufacture anything that Earth can simply to stay alive during the trip, so all you then need are the plans/templates, which is simple communication.
So you start, improve your ship and speed up. No time wasted, and you still get there first.
Unless of course someone invents FTL, in which case, you can't get the plans before they show up and say "hi".
It's the same with hard computer problems. Sure, it may get faster later, but you start now and improve the hardware as you go. Don't assume a closed system!
Jason Pollock
Re:Rest in peace (Score:5, Interesting)
Release it to the Public Domain (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:So long old friend (Score:4, Interesting)
If you look at history, the first voyages to the New World were all politically funded and motivated. Columbus sailed to the New World (actually it funded as a trip to find a quicker route to India and China) with ships and crew funded by Queen Isabella of Spain. Once gold was found, Spain sent ships and men to go get it (the fact that the gold belonged to someone else was a minor point to the Spanish). Once word of gold and land got out, other European nations started sending ships to the New World, funded by their Governments. Later, as new profit opportunities were found, Corporations (Hudson Trading Company) started getting involved.
The political agenda with space is nothing new. We are still at the stage where Politicans are funding space exploration. We are just beginning to see the beginning of Corporate interest -- mostly in satellites right now.
That said -- the main difference (other than technology and location) is we haven't (yet) found anyone out there. Pioneer 10 was a well built spacecraft that has given us (and the Gov't) much more than asked for. It has traveled over 11 light-minutes in 31 years before giving up the ghost, not bad for 1972 technology!
Pioneer's camera was unique (Score:3, Interesting)
The closest visual analogy I can think of is a phonograph record. The needle can only move right-to-left, so it relies on the rotation of the record to bring the different "sound spots" into "view". IIRC, the probe rotated at something like 6 times per minute. The 1D "stream" of light intensity readings was then reconstructed into a 2D image back here on Earth.