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Happy 30th Birthday, Pioneer 10

Posted by timothy on from the not-yet-over-the-hill dept.

tlon writes: "Pioneer 10, the spacecraft that brought us the first pictures of Jupiter, turned 30 today. Launched in 1972, the probe is now some 7.4 billion miles away, as it cruises out towards Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus. NASA will attempt to contact the spacecraft today, (it was successfully contacted last year), but the round trip time is over 22 hours. How's that for a ping latency? See Nasa's Pioneer 10 Page for more details."

25 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Ping. by saintlupus · · Score: 4, Funny

    the round trip time is over 22 hours. How's that for a ping latency?

    Could be worse. They could be trying to get to it through @Home.

    --saint

    1. Re:Ping. by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 4, Funny
      Ping time don't bother me. My skillz are so 1337, I could dial in from that rocket and still rack up a couple dozen frags per game with the rail gun.

      Those poor sux0rs just wouldn't know they lost until the next day.

  2. Now that is engineering by ColGraff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they do actually manage to contact the probe, that would be very, very cool. They don't build 'em like this anymore, gentlemen - all you need to do to see that is look at the Mars probes. What's really goofy is how now, one of the farthest man-made objects from Earth is completely, mind-bogglingly obsolete from a computing standpoint.

    --
    I'm the stranger...posting to /.
    1. Re:Now that is engineering by msaavedra · · Score: 3, Funny
      They don't build 'em like this anymore, gentlemen
      In fact, they rarely built 'em like that back then. My birthday is 2 March 1973, exactly one year younger than Pioneer 10, and I already feel like I'm falling apart. ;^)
      --
      "Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it."
      --Henry David Thoreau
    2. Re:Now that is engineering by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      and that is another example of writing bug-free code. (something that programmers still claim cannot happen) That probe was built by some awesome engineers... with a awesome budget...

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    3. Re:Now that is engineering by Ivan+Raikov · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, I seem to remember reading that Pioneer 10 didn't have on-board computers[...]

      Well, what do you know. According to Intel, the Pioneer 10 had a 4004 on board. Neat. So, as the old joke goes, in 1972 it took an Intel 4004 to operate a deep-space probe. In 2002, it takes a GHz PIII to run Windows. Things have gone terribly wrong.

      --
      Bush Lies Watch
  3. Google Cache (karma whoring...) by H0NGK0NGPH00EY · · Score: 3, Informative

    Google Cache

    Enjoy!

    --
    Do not read this sig.
  4. google cache by SevenTowers · · Score: 5, Informative

    here
    and
    here

    --
    Imperium et libertas
    Autocracy and freedom
  5. Klingon Target Fodder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Once this sucker crosses the neutral zone, it becomes fair game

  6. talk about clear reception.. by supernova87a · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The amazing thing is that the satellite is sending out a signal with as much power as maybe a watch battery, and we're receiving it from over 10^9 km away...

    Of course, the receiving dish is as big as a football field, but still.

  7. IP address? by ZaneMcAuley · · Score: 3, Funny

    So what is the ip address of this thing so i can perform a port scan :D

    Would make a killer proxy tho :)

    --
    ----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
  8. pioneer 10. by The+Hollow+Room · · Score: 5, Funny

    why contact it? Whats it going to say? Still dark. Still dark. Still dark.

  9. Re:I know you're a troll, but... by sweatyboatman · · Score: 3, Funny

    Remind me never to move next door to you. Most people I know respond to new neighbors by bringing over food and generally being nice. Your first instinct, I take it, would be to kill them.

    Sweat

    --
    It breaks my pluginses, my precious!
  10. The reverse may apply, too by Rob+Cebollero · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Imagine if one day we *do* see an extraterrestrial probe land here. As far advanced as it will appear to us, it may only be an ancient relic of its creating civilisation.

    --
    Decentralization: the brief interval between the decline of one centralized regime and rise of another.
  11. Re:I have an idea by cperciva · · Score: 5, Informative

    Two major problems:

    First, hardware fails occasionally. The probes would have to be able to send their signals back at least two hops in order to avoid having one failed probe "orphan" many others.

    Second, the trajectories rely upon a particular alignment of planets. If we sent out probes year after year, they'd end up going in completely different directions.

    --
    Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
  12. Re:It's going where? by toxcspdrmn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes - but we only found out about that in 1977 - 5 years after Pioneer was launched.

    --
    "E pur si muove!" - attributed to Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642
  13. Re:Speed of light is too slow. by PyroMosh · · Score: 4, Funny

    DH - No, no, no, Light speed's too slow!
    CS - Light speed to slow?
    DH - That's right we'll have to go straight to Ludacrious Speed!
    CS - <shock> Ludacrious speed! Sir, we've never gone that fast before!
    DH - WHAT's THE MATTER COLONEL SANDERS?!? CHICKEN?!?
    CS - <voice cracking> Prepare ship! </voice cracking>Perpare ship for Ludacrious speed! Close all shops in the mall, secure all animals in the zoo! Cancel the three ring circus!
    DH - <grabbing microphone> Give me that you petty excuse for an officer! Now hear this! Ludacrious speed!
    CS - Sir, you better buckle up!
    DH - Awww, bucke this! Ludacrious speed! GO!
    ****************

    What's truly sad is it's all from memory...

    --
    Touch everywhere, even when inappropriate.
  14. Re:Lond distance comms by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    first, as everyone here has said, in space radio = light in speed.

    second, noone has cracked quantum physics enough to discover a way to transmit using another dimension or creating or using wormholes or other FTL technology theories. AS soon as you see proof of multi-dimensional detection, or wormholes, trans-positional quarks, etc.. then I would guess that comms would be the first to follow.

    so either you need to wait about 100 years or hope that a major breakthrough in chaos mathematics or quantum physics.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  15. Say in a hundred years... by Vishniac · · Score: 4, Interesting
    ...we invent faster-than-light travel. Should we go out there and collect Pioneer 10 and the Voyager probes and everything else we've launched and put them in a museum for posterity? Or should we let them continue to drift through space, humanity's silent ambassadors to the stars?

    Just a question.

  16. Scene from a future alien press conference... by Robber+Baron · · Score: 4, Funny

    In what has proven to be one of the most sensational discoveries in recent times, scientists have announced that they have discovered a probe originating from a far away alien race. This probe contains a plaque containing a mysterious cryptic message. We go live to an update from the scientific team studying the probe...

    "After much careful studying of the plaque and it's contents we believe we have determined the approximate nature of the message it contains..."

    "It says: Get your free porn here!"

    --

    You're using her as bait, Master!

  17. So what's in the ping? Top 10: by phloda · · Score: 4, Funny

    1. Are wethere yet?
    2. Are we there yet
    3. Arewe there yet?
    4. Arewe there yet?
    5. Are we there yet?
    6. Arewe there yet?
    7. Are we there yet?
    8. Are wethere yet?
    9. Are we there yet?
    10. Are we there yet?

  18. Contact made! by Gogo+Dodo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Pioneer 10 has responded!

  19. Re:If it were going the speed of light... by supermoose · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You're actually off by about a factor of 10.

    7.4 billion miles ~= 11.8 billion km

    Which would mean that it actually takes 11 hours to get there at the speed of light... just like the radio message sent by NASA that was mentioned in the article. =) Doh!

    Am I alone in finding the fact that there was a mistake making distance conversions in a thread about NASA rather funny?

  20. Pioneer 10 v. "Bare Budget" Mars Projects by BitMan · · Score: 3
    "They don't build 'em like this anymore, gentlemen - all you need to do to see that is look at the Mars probes."

    You should really compare Pioneer 10 v. Galileo, Cassini or other, similar-costing, "full QA" projects from NASA. The "better, faster, cheaper" Mars probes that gained a lot of noteriety in their failures are NOT good comparisons based on their cost and lack of equivalent QA/testing.

    Simple engineering risk analysis showed NASA that the orders of magnitude in additional cost are worth it to guarantee an over 99% chance of success, versus less than 50% in the BFC approach. NASA will no longer attempt to build probes like those three Mars BFC projects (of which, only one was a success) again.

    --
    -- Bryan "TheBS" Smith
    Independent Author, Consultant and Trainer
  21. UPDATE 12:05EST - CONTACT MADE by crumbz · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just saw on CNN that contact was made via a radio telescope just east of Los Angeles.