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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."
Because the majority of your voting public re-elected a war president.
:(
The rest of the world (and the 49 percent of people who DIDNT want him back in) did try to tell them it was a bad idea, but obviously enough people didn't listen!
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
a decrepit country where non-profit orgs are forced to take matters into their own hands to save their national treasures.
I reject your cynicism. How about a country where passionate guys and non-profits are allowed to take matters into their own hands to save their national treaures.
How does that look to the outside world?
I think a better question is how does it look to the outside world when all they hear is the noise of whiners like you cutting down your own country?
Sheesh. What ever happened to patriotism? These guys are scientist patriots as far as I'm concerned. Here's what is truly sad: That the most patriotic feeling that this story could conjure up in you is the urge to bitch. Get off your ass and do something for your country. Contribute. To this project or to your country. Encourage others to do the same. Build up instead of tearing down. That's the lesson to be taken from this.
s/military/fucking military/g