| |
View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
GTG
Was lost but now am found
Joined: 30 Dec 2002
Posts: 2387
Location: Peoria, Arizona, originally from Rocket City, USA
|
 Posted: 2/26/2003, 8:24 am Post subject: Pioneer 10 falls silent after nearly 31 years |
 |
 |
|
|
Taken from CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/02/25/pioneer.10.ap/index.html
| Quote: |
Pioneer 10 falls silent after nearly 31 years
Tuesday, February 25, 2003 Posted: 9:33 PM EST (0233 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to venture out of the solar system, has fallen silent after traveling billions of miles from Earth on a mission that has lasted nearly 31 years, NASA said Tuesday.
What was apparently the spacecraft's last signal was received January 22 by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space Network. At the time, Pioneer 10 was 7.6 billion miles from Earth; the signal, traveling at the speed of light, took 11 hours and 20 minutes to arrive.
The signal and the two previous signals were very faint. The Deep Space Network heard nothing from Pioneer 10 during a final attempt at contact on February 7. No more attempts are planned.
Pioneer 10 was launched March 2, 1972, on a 21-month mission. It became the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt and the first to obtain close-up images of Jupiter. In 1983, it became the first manmade object to leave the solar system when it passed the orbit of distant Pluto.
Although Pioneer 10's mission officially ended in 1997, scientists continued to track the TRW Inc.-built spacecraft as part of a study of communication technology for NASA's future Interstellar Probe mission. Pioneer 10 hasn't relayed telemetry data since April 27.
"It was a workhorse that far exceeded its warranty, and I guess you could say we got our money's worth," said Larry Lasher, Pioneer 10 project manager at NASA's Ames Research Center.
Pioneer 10 carries a gold plaque engraved with a message of goodwill and a map showing the Earth's location in the solar system. The spacecraft continues to coast toward the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus. It will take 2 million years to reach it. [url]
30 years for a piece of equipment to work, not a bad job NASA.
GTG[/url] |
_________________
Good things come to those who walk. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
plummer150
Joined: 04 Jan 2003
Posts: 542
Location: Jersey City, New Jersey
|
| Posted: 2/26/2003, 9:29 am Post subject: re: |
|
|
|
|
That's just awesome. I love space. It's too bad it fell silent and they're breaking contact w/ it. It'd be amazing to be able to stay in contact w/ that forever to see what it sees and what it finds. Great article.
_________________
"IRONMAN" cometh, hiketh, destroyeth |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Daddee
I once was a slug.
Joined: 04 Jan 2003
Posts: 2815
Location: Mesa, AZ
|
| Posted: 2/26/2003, 11:56 am Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
As I understand it the Pioneer craft was used as a good standard for calibrating radio telescopes and verifying telemetry data.
Pioneer - the little satelite that could.
| Quote: |
It'd be amazing to be able to stay in contact w/ that forever to see what it sees and what it finds.
|
Well, that would be about how long it would take to reach the nearest star. It isn't even pointed at a particular star - so who knows when it would get captured in some star's gravity well. Just a bizzare little craft soaring quietly through space for a very, VERY long time....
_________________
"Only small minds want always to be right."
- Louis XIV
"...haven't you lived long enough to know that two men may honestly differ about a question and both be right?"
- Abraham Lincoln |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
desertgirl
Joined: 19 Jan 2003
Posts: 3350
Location: Chandler, AZ
|
| Posted: 2/26/2003, 1:15 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
Its amazing how far human impact has reached & will continue to do so.
_________________
Photos: http://www.pbase.com/desertgirl/galleries
Life is but a dream ...there is no end to what you can dream! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
tempe8
Joined: 04 Jan 2003
Posts: 66
Location: Tempe, AZ
|
| Posted: 2/27/2003, 10:59 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
I consider myself a news junkie and I totally missed this story. It's sad, with all the terrorist media blitz and pop culture garbage, we seem to lose site of such an uplifting story of a truly great accomplishment by humanity.
Think how far the human race has come in just the last 100 years? Mind boggling almost. One hundred years ago, great minds dreamed of how to soar with the birds...now we get angry when our seats are too close together as we jet across the continents. One hundred years ago we didn't even know Pluto existed...know we've sent a craft out past it's reaches.
And 100 years from now, a little piece of mankind that we were all witness to will still be zooming through the universe...
"I close my eyes...only for a moment, and the moment's gone..."
Kansas |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Daddee
I once was a slug.
Joined: 04 Jan 2003
Posts: 2815
Location: Mesa, AZ
|
| Posted: 2/28/2003, 11:18 am Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
In a related story - initial funding for a Pluto/Kuiper Belt mission has been approved. We're finally going to get a good look at Pluto. Of course - we have to wait 15 years or so, but still....
_________________
"Only small minds want always to be right."
- Louis XIV
"...haven't you lived long enough to know that two men may honestly differ about a question and both be right?"
- Abraham Lincoln |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
overrocked
Joined: 07 Jan 2003
Posts: 51
Location: phx, AZ
|
| Posted: 2/28/2003, 1:44 pm Post subject: pioneer |
|
|
|
|
There's a lot to be said about over-engineering 
_________________
Your life is dyed the color of your imagination |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Daddee
I once was a slug.
Joined: 04 Jan 2003
Posts: 2815
Location: Mesa, AZ
|
| Posted: 2/28/2003, 5:59 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
Just think - when they launched Pioneer 10 the U.S. could barely build an automobile that would run for 30,000 miles - and somehow Pioneer 10 made it through the Asteroid Belt, on past Neptune and then completely left the solar system.
Just think what might have happened if we could have given the transmission an overhaul.....
_________________
"Only small minds want always to be right."
- Louis XIV
"...haven't you lived long enough to know that two men may honestly differ about a question and both be right?"
- Abraham Lincoln |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ck1
Joined: 04 Jan 2003
Posts: 1331
Location: Mesa
|
| Posted: 2/28/2003, 10:31 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
"the space between.." is now stuck in my head...
I read somewhere that there was like 10 billion pieces of space junk floating around out there...and that...correct me if I'm wrong...that some of that junk may have contributed to challenger's demise...that's what I thought of...then, I got a chuckle out of the idea of some distant life form somewhere way out there just cruising around minding their own business and WHAM..they bump into the pioneer...two aliens looking at each other saying "what's this doing here?"....
ok...I'm going to stop posting here, as my lack of knowledge in the area of space stuff has become self evident to all readers.
_________________
-Colin
"The Journey is the Destination" |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Nighthiker
Joined: 05 Jan 2003
Posts: 1714
|
| Posted: 3/1/2003, 6:02 am Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
| Challenger was due in part to a o-ring problem in a solid fuel booster rocket. There had been a concern of some NASA engineers of the insulation hitting the left wing during lift-off of Columbia which may have damaged the shuttle. Overall I wonder how many concerns are generated into corrospondence during a typical mission. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
Home
Board
AZH Gear
FAQ
Search
Members
Articles
Calendar
Gallery
Register
Profile
Log in
Hosted by Gartman
Technical Services.