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NASA To Contact Its Oldest Spacecraft

Posted by timothy on from the don't-build-'em-like-they-used-ta dept.

BugBBQ writes: "This is very "Space:1999 UltraProbe" kinda-kool... NASA will attempt to contact its oldest spacecraft, Pioneer-6, launched in 1965! (yikes! that's the year I was born for crying out loud! which I'm sure I did at the time)). p.s.: Anyone who gets the Space:1999 ref is welcome to e-mail me" This bird has been spinning through space for a long time.

5 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Re:7 billion light years by Hard_Code · · Score: 4

    Yes, but we know that time travel can be achieved by attaining the exact speed of 88 mph (plus a flux capacitor)...so maybe we launched it yesterday, it went back 7 billion years in time, and now we are just trying to contact it.

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  2. ping... by glgraca · · Score: 4

    ping -i 36667

  3. Usefull Data. by HiyaPower · · Score: 5

    Some of these older space probes are still producing useful data. Check out Mit's Space Plasma web page. Voyager 2 is alive and well and producing data which is being actively studied. It should be passing the heliopause soon and then really be out beyond the system. Its hard to keep interest and funding up for these old guys, but it is well worth the effort.

  4. 7 billion light years by rjh · · Score: 4

    If it's seven billion light years away, then that might explain why my pings to it always timeout. :)

    (I think you meant seven billion here, not seven billion light years. One LY = 6 trillion miles/9 trillion KM, if I recall correctly. I really, really doubt that Pioneer 10 is 63 billion trillion KM away.)

  5. Re:What hardware is it running? by lemox · · Score: 5

    There's not a whole lot of info on Pioneer 6, but what is you can find is here and here.

    Pioneer 10 is the sexier of ventures, since it's now the furthest away, and therefore gets more attention.

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