Pioneer 10 Finally Dead After 28 Years?

BorgiaPope writes: "Jill Tarter of the SETI Institute's Project Phoenix writes a sad, elegiac piece in Slate about the apparent final silence of Pioneer 10, launched in 1972 and now more than 7 billion miles from Earth. For the past five years, SETI scientists at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico have used the incredibly faint signals from Pioneer 10 to test the functionality of their noise filtering gear. Alas, Tarter reports that Pioneer 10 hasn't been heard from for several days now. The incredibly hardy, long-lived satellite, which long ago surpassed NASA's wildest expectations for its power supplies and other systems, may finally have drifted peacefully into eternal slumber . . . ." I think the Klingons got it.

Comments

28 *years*?

[K8Fan]

...and you think you've got uptime!

Seriously, it's a testament to the engineering skill of the people who built, launched and operated this particular piece of machinery. Amazing work!

Pioner Plaque ingraving outliving humanity?

[Defraggle]

From the NASA Website:

"
We expect Pioneer to last an indeterminate period of time, probably outlasting its home planet, the Earth. In 5 billion years, the Sun will become a red giant, expand, envelop the orbit of the Earth, and consume it. Pioneer will still be out there in interstellar space. Erosional processes in the interstellar environment are largely unknown, but are very likely less efficient than erosion within the solar system, where a characteristic erosion rate, due largely to micrometeoritic pitting, is of the order of 1 Angstrom/yr. Thus a plate etched to a depth ~ 0.01 cm should survive recognizable at least to as distance ~ 10 parsecs, and most probably to 100 parsecs. Accordingly, Pioneer 10 and any etched metal message aboard it are likely to survive for much longer periods than any of the works of Man on Earth.
"

A picture of the plaque:

http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects /pioneer/PNimgs/Plaque.gif

That made me think, I hope you share the experience.

Defraggle
Head monkey
Dynamic League of discord POEE Cabal "Monkey"

Re:Pioner Plaque ingraving outliving humanity?

[komet]

"So, bwrrwg, how are you getting on deciphering that plaque?"

"Well, I think I've figured most of it out. These symbols here tell us that they live on the third planet around a pretty normal star."

"What about these squiggles?"

"Well, qrrq, that's the puzzling thing. It seems to be a depiction of the people who sent out the device. Looks like they've got two sexes - pretty normal - and they look a bit like the tree people of Alderaan V. But..."

"What?"

"Well, it seems these people spend their lives... naked."

"Naked?!?"

"Without clothes, that's right. There's no sign of them on the engraving..."

"No clothes?!?"

"Yes, it's hard to believe, but.."

"But how... how do they survive without clothes?"

"They have some hot regions on their planet, perhaps, where they can survive without clothes.."

"Not that, stupid. How do they communicate? How do they display their social standing? How can you possibly distinguish yourself without clothes?"

"Don't be zzttzztcentric. Just because we have expensive clothes with brand labels and all that stuff doesn't mean these people have to. Perhaps they're better off, not having to overstretch their budget to buy Clvvm Klnnnwwnw stuff for their kids and stuff like that.."

"So they don't have an economy?"

"Well, just not like ours. No stock options or stuff like that. I suppose they're a barter economy like we were 1000000 moons ago."

"But.."

"I know what your thinking - how can such a primitive economic system generate a space program? We can only assume that these people all contribute to the greater good, building space probes, comforted in the knowledge that they're contributing to science."

"Wow. What a peaceful place that must be!"

"Yes, I think we can learn a lot from these "Earth" people."

"Yeah. They must live like gods!"