Computer Forensics to Help Solve Pioneer Mystery

Posted by Hemos on Monday March 5, 2007 @01:37AM from the deconstructing-the-past dept.

Matthew Sparkes writes "Launched 35 years ago on Friday, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to reach the outer Solar System and return pictures of Jupiter, closely followed by Pioneer 11. However, the twin Pioneer spacecraft drifted off course (see number 8) by hundreds of thousands of kilometres during their three-decade mission, and NASA eventually lost contact with them. An international team of scientists, including many amatuer hobbyists, are re-analysing the tracking and telemetry data in the hope of discovering the reason."

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I hope they fail. by grimJester · 2007-03-05 02:00 · Score: 4, Insightful

Heh. I think most of us here on Slashdot would want this anomaly to be due to new and k3wl physics rather than some mundane error. The Pioneer anomaly is one of, if not the most interesting unexplained observation I know of.