Slashdot Mirror
Pioneer 10 Still Running After 30 years
evilempireinc writes "According to this article in Scientific American, Pioneer 10 is still functioning 30 years after it was launched in 1972, and is still sending back scientific data. The article mentions that two other old space craft, Voyager, and IMP-8 are still functioning after over 20 years as well due to overbuilt construction and redundant systems. Can't help but wonder if the present generation of "faster, better, cheaper" probes will ever live this long though."
Anyone who went to elementary school in the 70's ought to remember the cafeteria milk cartons with little factoids about Pioneer, Voyager, and a bunch of other spacecraft. I wonder if anyone has pictures of those old things?
I think it is ... but you were right about it being a good read!
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
The whole article is a bit long to post here, but the gist lies along the lines of;
/.ing other websites!
Pioneer 10, the first space probe to go through the kupier belt of asteroids between Mars & Jupiter was originally slated for a four year trek to the edge of our solar system, but because of the strong design used in it's manufacture it continues sending data back to earth every-so-often with a signal that has roughly the power of a nightlight.
The probe is now around 30 years old, but is not the farthest man-made object from earth, that honor goes to Voyager 1, which overtook pioneer in Feb. 1998.
Pioneer will hopefully reach the Heilopause boundry before it's life ceases, which is where the pressure of the solar wind becomes equal to that of interstellar wind of cosmic rays. It is thought to be preceeded by the termination shock, which is where the solar wind suddenly slows from supersonic speeds to subsonic speeds (which I fail to find the relevance of in space, because mach-speeds have relevance based on the media through which they flow). However, if the probes reach this far, they may be able to beam back data confirming scientific theory about interstellar cosmic radiation.
The other spacecraft-which-refuses to die is IMP-8, a satellite orbiting earth at around 2/3rds the distance between the earth and the moon. It was used to collect data about long-scale solar processes. It had no magnetic drum onboard (hey, it was launched in 1973) but was made to beam data back to earth at the whopping fast rate of 6000-bits per second (whopping for the 70s anyway). Unfortunately, this data stream is in the VHF band, and as such, is becoming increasingly obsolete for data transmission. However, even though the satellite cannot be used for it's primary function anymore (the Magnetometer finally failed) it is still used to collect data about cosmic radiation densities, which is of help to know when finding times to launch long distance probes like the Voyagers & Pioneer.
Pioneer 10 is slated to eventually reach the Taurus constellation... in roughly two million years. The Voyagers will chug along for a few more years anyway, their nuclear power sources should keep them happy until at least 2020. And old IMP-8? He'll be used until at least 2005. "Pioneer 10, the Voyager twins and IMP-8 show you just can't keep a good spacecraft down."
Now! Back to
- Jones
I assert that my comment is only my opinion, not that of any employer, past, present or future.
I concur with your and the poster's premise on that. You can't even by a toaster these days that lasts more than 4 years. People had a toaster for life back in the day.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of the older NASA equipment will end up being the longest lasting and best equipment ever made for space.
Perhaps it won't just be due to the times (there was probably more of an emphasis on needing things to work back then when there was competition with the then Soviet Union) but that's probably part of it.
-- Scientist: You aren't going to leave me here, are you? Boagh! Thump...
[2002-07-23]
Pioneer 10
Distance from Sun (AU) 80.858
Speed relative to Sun (km/s) 12.255
Speed relative to Sun (AU/year) 2.585
Ecliptic Latitude 3.0
Declination (J2000) 25.78
Right Ascension (J2000) 5.012 hrs
One-way light time (hours) 11.31
M@
Krispy Cream is people
. Or that it is real stable because the OS crashes only once a day.
Fight Spammers!
This graphic from The Telegraph article shows where Pioneer 10 is (outside of our Solar System). It also shows pictures it took of Jupiter (1973), Saturn (1979) and Pluto (1983). It has been almost 20 years since it left our Solar System. Apparently it is heading towards the "Eye" of the Taurus Bull constellation, and will take 2 million years to reach it. however it is slowing down by some "mysterious" force.
I seriously question the long-term of any semiconductor electronics built today. No, there are no moving parts - except the electrons and any atoms they may knock about as they scurry on their way from source to drain and through the wires.
Shipping reliable semiconductors has always been a lifetime issue. There is a "bathtub curve" of failures, with a higher number of early fallout, then a very reliable main lifetime, then failures rise again at wearout. Wearout happens through mechanisms like electromigration, where the electrons physically knock the metalization atoms out of place. In addition, all of the hot process steps like diffusion continue to happen, just at much slower rates. High reliability semiconductors are "burned in", run at higher temperatures and voltages than normal, to force them past that early fallout and throw those parts away.
So what does this mean to space electronics? First, radiation just doesn't help. You can design rad-hard, but the crystal lattice is still taking damage, and it's cumulative. The low temperature helps to slow down wearout mechanisms.
But the big problem is modern technology. The smaller geometries will simply wear out faster. Finer wires are more subject to electromigration, though using copper is an improvement because the atoms are heavier than aluminum. But gates are thinner, as are diffusions and spacings, non of which helps long life. When designing a burn-in regimen, it's getting tougher to get past early failures without approaching wearout. While frequency can be reduced to increase lifetime, scaling voltage down is getting tougher, because we're running darned close to minimums, already.
One of my pet thoughts is the idea of electronics for a multi-generation starship. Other than slowing it down, stopping as much as possible, reducing voltages, etc, it's a tough problem. Maybe the best way is to scrape the bargain bins for old technology.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Actually, Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2 have both cleared the solar system... well, depending on what you define as the solar system.
p ioneer/PNhome.html).
Pioneer 10 crossed the orbit of Neptune and passed beyond the (at the time) furthest orbiting planet on June 13, 1983 (see this page). It hasn't passed the heliopause yet (distance where the solar wind ceases), at least not that anyone can determine.
Pioneer 10 is not the probe furthest from the sun, however. Apparantly that honor goes to Voyager 1, which is moving faster and exceeded Pioneer 10's heliocentric distance on Feb 17, 1998, but it's still well over 7 billion miles away. (see http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/
One interesting thing I found while looking for this is that only Pioneer 10 is moving in the opposite direction from our solar system (relative to the galactic core). Voyager 1 & 2, as well as Pioneer 11 are moving "in front of" us, while Pioneer 10 is moving the opposite direction. This could result in some really useful information about the edges of the solar system -- except that apparantly Pioneer 10's power system is going to run out of juice in a few years (solar powered I guess - the W/m^2 will probably be too low to power the probe at that point).
And no, we're not getting pictures of Neptune or Pluto. You determine these things at time of launch -- we've been doing astronomical calculations for a few hundred years and know where the planets are going to be far ahead of time. Pioneer 10 wasn't scheduled to make a flyby of anything but Jupiter because the orbits were wrong.
And yes, it is still sending back data. As is Pioneer 6, which is still orbiting the sun at about 74 million miles (inside the Earth's orbit). But, like I said, apparantly that's not going to be much longer for Pioneer 10. Shame... but one heck of a legacy to its designers. And just think - in a couple million years we'll be able to pick it up in the vicinity of Aldebaran.
Actually, that was Voyager VI. Except we were told of only two: Voyager I and Voyager II (actually launched first, if I recall correctly, due to a faster trajectory.) Hmmm... Wonder if the Men in Black were involved in that cover-up. ;)
i am a soviet space shuttle
The long running question of whether Pluto is a planet or not was solved a few years ago. Pluto is just a big asteroid from the Kuiper-belt or the Oort cloud. As for its status, it is still a planet for tradition's sake. At least this was the decision of astronomers at their annual meeting in 1999.
Government cannot make man richer, but it can make him poorer. - Ludwig von Mises
(solar powered I guess - the W/m^2 will probably be too low to power the probe at that point).
Nope. Actually, solar panels are not a practical means of powering a spacecraft beyond the asteroid belt, and these probes go far, far beyond that.
Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyagers 1 and 2, Ulysses, Galileo, and Cassini (to name many of the "big" and famous probes that are out there right now) are all nuclear powered. They carry radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) that carry plutonium as a fuel source. Surprisingly (?), the Viking I and II landers that touched down on Mars in 1976 are also nuclear-powered.
The probes are gradually dying because their plutonium fuel is running out, not because the sun is fading away. At the distances at which many of these probes travel, the Sun appears (from their location) simply as a bright start among many other stars.
i am a soviet space shuttle
This could result in some really useful information about the edges of the solar system -- except that apparantly Pioneer 10's power system is going to run out of juice in a few years (solar powered I guess - the W/m^2 will probably be too low to power the probe at that point).
The Pioneer 10 & 11 probes are not solar powered. They use RTG (radiothermal generation) power sources, which are hot lumps of radioactive material and the heat is converted into electricity. Solar power would be far too weak even at Jupiter or Saturn, much less at the distances that Pioneer 10 & 11 are at.
The radioactive source is continually decaying, so it will lose power over time.
NASA still publishes semi-regular status reports on both Voyagers here.
--
THE GOOD HUMOR MAN CAN ONLY BE PUSHED SO FAR
Bart Simpson on chalkboard in episode 2F18
> Okay.. I read the article. It was an interesting mix between pat on the back science
c ur rent.htmle _Projects/p ioneer/PNStat.html/ rochedale/solar9.htm
) surface map of Pluto, thanks to Hubble (the satellite, not the man). The debate over whether Pluto is a planet is dependent on two things: (1) we don't really have a specific definition of the word "Planet", and (2) the common masses would get pissed off if Pluto got demoted, even if it was a rightful demotion, since they were taught as children that Pluto is a planet
:)
> and good old "Hey, aint NASA GREAT!" enthusiasm.
Well, at least that's a good counter to the constant "scientific research doesn't help people, so it's better to spend twenty times on the military than on space research" FUD that seethes through popular media.
> My question.. which I did not see answered, are where ARE they right now? I know they havent
> cleared the SS yet, but where exactly are they? ARe we going to get pictures Pluto and Neptune
> back?
http://www.vttoth.com/probes/probes.html
That's an okay list of current space probe locations, though it's not in any kind of detail.
None of the deep space probes are anywhere even remotely near Pluto or Neptune.
http://vraptor.jpl.nasa.gov/flteam/weekly-rpts/
http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Spac
http://www.schools.ash.org.au
The above URLs should show you that both Voyagers as well as Pioneer 10 are at least ten billion kilometers away from the Sun, and they are leaving the solar system at greater than minimal escape velocity. Pluto, when furthest from Sol, is 7.4 billion kilometers away. So the probes are anywhere between 2.6 and 17.4 billion (or more) billion kilometers away from Pluto. Which means that we won't learn much from them about our little wanna-be planet.
> (Which would be GREAT.. and would solve that long running question of whether Pluto is even a
> planet, a bit asteroid, or a half a planet that got pulled into the gravity well here).
The long-running question is not science based, really. We already know the mass and diameter of Pluto. Heck, we even have a
(http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/96/09.html
> Does it even have the transmitting power to send real data back anymore?
> or simply to weakly croak "I am here".
Well, Pioneer still performs maneuvering commands when requested. I don't know if its scientific resources are useable, but the Voyagers have nominal science instrument performance. I do recall that they are using these probes to determine where the point between solar wind and its stellar equivalent become equivalent in strength. I can't tell you much more, as I'm a bit busy at work today.
-JC
http://www.jc-news.com/
Anyway, Voyager 1 appears to be just short of 8 billion miles from the sun rather than "well over 7" as mentioned below.
My post needs to be slightly corrected: the cause of the power loss is mostly due to aging of the thermal couple, not the decay of the radioactivity.
More information from Pioneer home page:
Electrical power is provided by four radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG), each providing 40 watts of power at launch. Two three-rod trusses, 120 degrees apart, project from the equipment compartment to deploy the RTG power sources about 10 feet from the center of the spacecraft. A third boom, 120 degrees from the others, projects from the experiments compartment and positions the helium vector magnetometer sensor 20 feet from the spacecraft center.
and from the FAQ
Question:Why does the RTG power decrease?
Answer: Power for the Pioneer 10 is generated by the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTG's). Heat from the decay of the plutonium 238 isotope is converted by thermoelectric couples into electrical current. The electrical output depends on the hot junction temperature, the thermal path to the radiator fins, and the cold junction temperature. It is the degradation of the thermoelectric junction that has the major effect in decreasing the power output of the RTG. In the 30-year time scale operation of Pioneer 10, the 92 year half-life of the isotope does not appreciably affect the RTG operation. The nuclear decay heat will keep the hot junction temperature hot for many years but unfortunately will not be able to be converted into enough electricity to power the transmitter for much longer.
As an aside, this type of power source is behind the plutonium scare-mongering that surrounded Cassini.
I particularly like the *FREE* ARM (Automated Requirements Measurement) tool from the SATC (first link). Granted it only runs on Windoze, but you can get it to parse a 300+ page req doc and count all the requirements, weak phrases, etc. for you. Handy tool.
"Content's a bitch."