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Help Solve the Mystery of the Pioneer Anomaly
deglr6328 writes "Very soon, NASA will be dismantling and scrapping its only computer left which is able to access and process the data on its ancient 7- and 9-track magnetic tapes. "Who cares", you say? Well, the Planetary Society for one and they're hoping you might care as well. The data held on these (few hundred) tapes is no ordinary forgettable data, it is the complete archive of the first 15 years of all the data returned to Earth by the Pioneer spacecraft which were sent into interstellar space. This additional and thus far unexamined data (the data after 1988 is available and has already been examined) may hold the key to solving what is considered one of the top problems in physics today, the so called Pioneer anomaly, where the observed trajectory of these spacecraft (and a couple others) deviates noticeably from our very precise expectation. The reason for the anomaly may be as mundane as uneven radiation pressure or escaping thruster fuel or it may be as groundbreaking as a clue to completely new physics, perhaps related to dark matter or dark energy. The Planetary Society is planning on recovering this data and poring over it meticulously to look for something which may have been missed or hidden from current investigations into the phenomenon. They need money to do this, about $250,000, and are asking for donations to fund the project. You do not need to be a member to donate. There are no serious proposals to send any more spin-stabilized spacecraft on solar escape trajectories any time in the near future and this is probably the only tenable method we have to directly investigate this mystery in the interim."
1.Deviate spacecrafts from their precisely-planned flightpaths
2.???
3.Profit!
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
The damn thing only supported DVD-R discs, not DVD+R, that's why it didn't work.
I have an 8-track deck in my Charger...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
What and miss a great opportunity for a wonderful conspiracy theory in the future?
"They destroyed those things so we wouldn't know what it REALLY found. I know they did! Why else would they destroy them. It must be a conspiracy!"
Just as well, i was away to send a million pounds but thought "oh no! im not a member! theyll never accept my non-space-geek cash!"
They have 3 million USD and they are willing to give the extra amount to you as a thank you for your help. Only problem is that the 3 MUSD is stuck in a Nigerian bank and they need some help getting it out. They just need some cash up front to process the transaction. All you need to do is to send them your bank details and some money and soon you will receive 2.75 million dollars for your help :-P
God's will. He doesn't want us exploring outside the solar system He gave us.
Unless the spacecraft is further out than we expect it to be... in that case, he is speeding the spacecraft along its holy path and he wants mankind to study more of the universe.
Yes, they most likely will fit. Now please invent a time machine and yourself back to the 1960's so you can have them install a USB port, preferably USB 2.0, on the computers for the Pioneer project. See, all the problems are solved!
I'm sorry, that's classified.
Pretty Pictures!
Sweet. We can put it on my phone!
Lasers Controlled Games!
That has to be one of the most ignorant and/or uninformed statement i heard whole week.
GPL the data, yea, right...sheesh.
My cassette tape of the Rolling Stone's "Sticky Fingers" still plays after 30 years, but then it has been baked and cooled hundreds of times sitting on the dash of my VW bug.
Since when are the two guys out back waiting to kneecap the contestants considered 'lovely?'
Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
man: no entry for woman in the manual.
"Qua!?"
1.Deviate spacecrafts from their precisely-planned flightpaths.
2.Blockbuster movie staring famous Scientologist.
3.Profit!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
GPL? Sure, there is so much value in being able to modify that data ...
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Only it was from the Nigerian Planetary Society, and they promised a return on my investment.
I have an 8-track deck in my Charger...
Will you please RTFA. It clearly says 7 and 9 track tapes.
But statistically speaking, it ought to work on average.
FreeSpeech.org
Despite the current economic conditions, PhD's don't work cheap.
No. but their grad students do.
FreeSpeech.org
If that's what stops NASA from salvaging that data, somebody needs to be fired there...
Somebody DOES need to be fired but not at NASA. Unfortunately, the elections are over a year away.
It's simple: I demand prosecution for torture.