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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."
Okay.. I read the article. It was an interesting mix between pat on the back science and good old "Hey, aint NASA GREAT!" enthusiasm.
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? (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).
Does it even have the transmitting power to send real data back anymore? or simply to weakly croak "I am here".
Maeryk
Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?
Failure is an interesting field of study.
Lets say after 5 years you want a 99% chance it still works, or 1% chance of failure. If look at it after 10, or 20 years you'd only have a 2% or 3% chance of failure.
Basically if something is VERY reliable in the short term, it will have a LONG life before you would expect it to wear out.
Weibull statistics are pretty good for predicting life, you can read up on it. In many industries it is the accepted standard approach to predict life.
Makes sense to me, if they want to reproduce the successes of the past. "Faster, better, cheaper" is a myth -- you can't just spout a slogan and get everything you want. If you want better stuff, you've got to be prepared to spend more time or money on it, period. It's like the old programmer's motto: "Fast, cheap, good. Pick two."
Really, there are a lot of analogies between how NASA works and how software dev houses work, and perhaps the two could learn from each other's successes. Code reviews, as was discussed not so long ago on Slashdot, are by far the most cost-effective use of developers' time because of the enormous amount of bugs they prevent. But it's also a very frequently skimped-on area, due to penny pinching and programmer hubris (nothing wrong with MY code!).
My deviantArt site
It's like comparing dispisable watches to a Rolex.
I have a Timex Marathon 100 digital watch I bought in 1986 for $35. I have worn it daily since then and have only changed the battery 4 times and it works fine.
Someone I know who has a Rolex paid over $2000 for it and they are "supposed" to send it in for cleaning every 3-5 years (which runs about $500).
What was that about disposable watches and Rolexes?
What I want to know is, why does the plaque showing humanity in all its naked glory have the man waving hello? How are aliens supposed to interpret this? For all we know that could be the intergalactic symbol for 'come and eat my species, we taste really yummy'...
Mation
You probably could have a Mach number in space. Consider this: The speed of sound through a medium is dependant on the density of that medium. Now space isn't a perfectly hard vacuum - there's a tiny amount of very, very thin gas. So, if you work out the density of the gas in the heliopause, you can work out the speed of sound.
Since vibration travels slowly through less dense media, I suspect the speed of sound in space would be very slow indeed. And you'd need a really loud sound...
And according to this week's New Scientist are still producing 'new science'.
Apparently they are slowing down relative to the sun, due to the action of some unknown force, which may be linked to dark matter.
Synopsis here:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/search/dosearc
Though you'll have to buy an issue or wait a week to view the full text.