NASA Gives Up On Pioneer 10

Soft writes "Another Energizer Bunny has finally given out: Pioneer 10's generators have decayed to the point that DSN can no longer detect the probe's signals. It was the first spacecraft to penetrate the asteroid belt (1972) and fly by Jupiter (1973). So long and thanks for all the pic's..."

Comments

am I the only one

[outsider007]

I worry that we're leaving a trial of breadcrumbs for conquering alien races to find us. fight the future.

Re:am I the only one

[Blondie-Wan]

If that were a concern, the constant stream of radio, TV and other telecommunications signals we've been pumping into space for most of the 20th century would be a far bigger problem. There's effectively a big sphere of signals expanding around Earth in all directions at the speed of light, and anyone in space who chanced to stumble across any of our physical probes like Pioneer 10 would most likely have already detected us long, long before. Earth really calls a lot of attention to itself with its broadcasts, and our signals just get stronger and more blanketing as time goes by. Not only that, but even if we stopped all broadcasts tomorrow, there'd still be all our old signals moving out through space, and anyone out there with the wherewithal to detect them would be have several of our earth decades of opportunity in which to do so.

Moreover, many think it's profoundly unlikely any alien races would be interested in conquering us. Even assuming others out there are hostile, the effort and expenditure of resources to get from there to here would probably mean the payoff for attacking us wouldn't be worth the trip.

It's also been argued that any extraterrestrial civilizations capable of detecting us will almost certainly be much older and more advanced (the thinking being that on the cosmic timescale, we're just starting off, and any civilization even a little younger than ours wouldn't have the tech to detect us, and the odds are high against another civ reaching this stage of development against the exact same time we do, so if they can hear us they've probably been around a while), and that (presumably, anyway) anyone so advanced wouldn't be warlike, so we'd probably have a lot more to gain than to lose from others finding out about us. I'm certainly no expert, but this does strike me as a fairly reasonable line of thought.

Re:Lifespan?

[kfg]

Actually, other than the low temperature the enviroment of space isn't very harsh.

It's when you start getting near things, like planets and stars, that things get dicey.

Pioneer is heading the other way, and there isn't any reason that it shouldn't drift on for millions of years, God willing and the crick don't rise none.

That's why they affixed the infamous plaque to it.

KFG

It's still serving part of its mission.

[chaparrl]

From the info at Nasa's page on Pioneer 10 "A plaque was mounted on the spacecraft body with drawings depicting a man, a woman, and the location of the sun and the earth in our galaxy."

Re:Radioisotopes

[Anonymous Coward]

---..are really cool. Nuclear powered naval vessels don't last a third as long as Pioneer's radioactive batteries have.

You dont have a clue. A nuclear submarine has 1 battery compartment. This battery is your 50 gallon drum nuclear battery. Those types of batteries have a lifespan (in the submarine) of about 20 years. For that 20 years, it takes care of propulsion, air bladders, CO2 scrubbers, and the 90V AC (I cant remember the freq offhand).

For disposal, they seal these drums in bigger drums with the bottom of the bigger drum a lead/concrete mesh. They proceed to pour the similar mixture all around the barrel, sealing it totally. Then they lift it 2 miles down a hole in a mountain (Nevada). Once a floor is done, it's sealed by concrete and then a hatch is rivited and then soldered on.

For what it's worth, ALL the nuclear waste in the US would fit in the dimensions of the football field 6 feet deep. Compare that to COx, NOx, SOx and other organic crap floating from tailpipes. After what I've seen, nuclear is the safest fuel, given non-idiots tending the reactor. You've never heard of a US nuclear powered sub go critical and meltdown. You wonder why? They arent the dumbasses like 3MI. Island.

From somebody who knows a little too much.

Re:Rest in peace

[Provocateur]

Pioneer isn't dead as long as its moving and carrying that plaque as its one final message from us.

You know what I've always been looking for in the NASA site but could never get? Animated clips of its voyage (or that of Voyager's) and its fly-bys of the other planets. I always thought they would make really great looking screensavers to match my wallpapers of the shuttle. Anybody know where I can get them?

Keep on flyin Pioneer

It might have discovered anomolous gravity

[ggwood]

I am saddened to hear that we lost contact with Pioneer 10 because we don't understand the forces acting on it. One would think that since we know gravity pretty well, and we know the relivant masses involved, we could predict the motion of the Pioneer satelites. Alas no. Exotic things like dark matter and photon pressure were invoked to explain the extra attraction (back) towards our sun, and failed. I heard a great talk about this while at U.C. Riverside department of Physics and had the chance to ask about photon pressure myself (yes, they take that into account - it is a far, far larger effect than this). The BBC has an old story on this effect, which I am sure many slashdotters have already heard of, here.

By the way, a similar anomoly is seen in Pioneer 11 and another distant satelite (Ulysses perhaps???).

Also, there is a link at nasa.gov, but at this time it seems broken. I include it for completeness here.

It seems John Anderson and friends have written several articles on this. One which you might find interesing has been published in Physical Review D: here.

Re:Rest in peace

[superyooser]

No, but this page has some fascinating artist renditions (and *huge* publication size images), including Pioneer passing Jupiter, and the Pioneer looking back at the sun from Neptune's orbit!! Amazing! Nobody's ever seen *our* sun appear so small. (It's more dramatic in the medium-size picture.) It gives me goose bumps thinking what it would feel like to be out there, lost in the bleakness of space.

Release it to the Public Domain

[farnsaw]

How about releasing it with all it's communication protocols, passwords, etc to the public domain. Who knows, there might be an enterprising young genius out there with an array of 120 foot (~40 meter) dishes. ;-)