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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."
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!"
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."
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
UFO - 500 zarbos
Tractor beam - 100 zarbos
Antimatter fuel - 30 zarbos
Confusing the puny humans for decades - priceless
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.