sbarron Posted February 26, 2003 Report Share Posted February 26, 2003 NASA's 'Pioneer 10' Craft Falls Silent After 31 Years LOS ANGELES -- Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to venture out of the solar system, has fallen silent after traveling billions of miles from Earth on a mission that has lasted nearly 31 years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said. What was apparently the spacecraft's last signal was received Jan. 22 by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space Network. At the time, Pioneer 10 was 7.6 billion miles from Earth; the signal, traveling at the speed of light, took 11 hours and 20 minutes to arrive. The signal and two previous signals were very faint. The Deep Space Network heard nothing from Pioneer 10 during a final attempt at contact on Feb. 7, NASA said Tuesday. No more attempts are planned. Pioneer 10 was launched March 2, 1972, on a 21-month mission. It became the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt and the first to obtain close-up images of Jupiter. In 1983, it became the first manmade object to leave the solar system when it passed the orbit of distant Pluto. Although Pioneer 10's mission officially ended in 1997, scientists continued to track the TRW Inc.-built spacecraft as part of a study of communication technology for NASA's future Interstellar Probe mission. Pioneer 10 hasn't relayed telemetry data since April 27. "It was a workhorse that far exceeded its warranty, and I guess you could say we got our money's worth," said Larry Lasher, Pioneer 10 project manager at NASA's Ames Research Center. Pioneer 10 carries a gold plaque engraved with a message of goodwill and a map showing the Earth's location in the solar system. The spacecraft continues to coast toward the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus. It will take 2 million years to reach it. Copyright © 2003 Associated Press Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted February 27, 2003 Report Share Posted February 27, 2003 Unless someone picks it up along the way, looks at the plaque, and decides "Hmm, intriguing. Let's take a look at these human things." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syberdwarf2 Posted February 27, 2003 Report Share Posted February 27, 2003 Originally posted by Michael Hopcroft Unless someone picks it up along the way, looks at the plaque, and decides "Hmm, intriguing. Let's take a look at these human things." We have picked it up. And we are coming..... human. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted February 27, 2003 Report Share Posted February 27, 2003 Isaac Asimov wrote a story about this. Aliens did indeed find it. It turns out that all technological species do this just before they are invited to join the Galactic Federation. They were coming to destroy the Earth, though. It seems we were the only species that sent out pictures of ourselves... naked! Earthling Perverts. Keith "Porn spamming the universe" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kara Zor-El Posted February 27, 2003 Report Share Posted February 27, 2003 Originally posted by Syberdwarf2 We have picked it up. And we are coming..... human. Ahem! Who you callin' human? Bring it on. Kryptonians always manage to take care of hostile aliens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syberdwarf2 Posted February 27, 2003 Report Share Posted February 27, 2003 Originally posted by Kara Zor-El Ahem! Who you callin' human? Bring it on. Kryptonians always manage to take care of hostile aliens. Oh, really..... (((begins powering up armor))) Red Kryptonite Armor: Multipower (all Only Versus Kryptonians) Armor (40 PD/40 ED), Hardened x10, OIF, Always On HKA 30d6, Penetrating, Armor Piercing x25 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kara Zor-El Posted February 27, 2003 Report Share Posted February 27, 2003 Originally posted by Syberdwarf2 Oh, really..... (((begins powering up armor))) Red Kryptonite Armor: Multipower (all Only Versus Kryptonians) Armor (40 PD/40 ED), Hardened x10, OIF, Always On HKA 30d6, Penetrating, Armor Piercing x25 Pshaw. That'll only delay the inevitable. lol Alien invasions never work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syberdwarf2 Posted February 27, 2003 Report Share Posted February 27, 2003 Originally posted by Kara Zor-El Pshaw. That'll only delay the inevitable. lol Alien invasions never work. Silly humanoid... That depends on your definition of alien. I'm sure that the American 'Indians', or your ancient Romans after the fall of their 'empire' would tend to disagree. Seriously, sorry to get the thread off topic. I was curious, though... Let's assume that Pioneer just keeps on going, and manages somehow to survive long enough (a VERY long time) to make it to another (inhabited) star system. It's a spacecraft, yes, but IIRC, it was never designed to land; no ceramic heat shielding. At least not over the gold plaque on the side. So... It makes it all the way out there, comes to a planet filled with intelligent, space-capable beings,..... and burns up horribly in the atmosphere, melting/destroying that fancy gold plaque..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbarron Posted February 27, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2003 I'm guessing that sometime before the 2 million years it will take Pioneer to get to the Tuarus constellation, we will either have passed it by with something faster or ceased to exist. As a result, I'm not too worried about what the aliens who find it are going to think about how we look naked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syberdwarf2 Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 Originally posted by sbarron I'm guessing that sometime before the 2 million years it will take Pioneer to get to the Tuarus constellation, we will either have passed it by with something faster or ceased to exist. As a result, I'm not too worried about what the aliens who find it are going to think about how we look naked. I'm not too worried either. I just find it ridiculous that NASA's "best and brightest", didn't stop to think that it'll burn up in an alien atmosphere just like any other meteor. Of course, I realize I probably don't have the whole story, but still... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent Escafarc Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 I'm not worried after all its Voyager thats going to come back and kick our butts;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 Out of intellectual curiosity, I wonder how much it would cost as a vehicle... Hmmm... Description of the Spacecraft Measured from its farthest ends, from the horn of the medium-gain antenna to the tip of the omnidirectional antenna, the Pioneer spacecraft is 2.9 meters (9 1/2 feet) long. Its widest cross-wise dimension, exclusive of the booms, is the 2.7-meter (9-foot) diameter high gain antenna. Pioneer weighs 270 kilograms (570 pounds). Let's see. That's a little more than Size Category 1 (200 kg, or Motorcycle size) but much less than Size Category 2 (400 kg or Chariot size). Size Category 1 translates to 1.25 game inches (2.5 meters) long and .64 game inches (1.3 meters) wide. Size Category 2 translates to 1.6 game inches (3.2 meters) long and .8 (1.6 meters) wide. I'd call it Size Category 2, but with a weight of 270 kg. Since attitude control took a long time, I'd say it had a SPD of 1. With a velocity of 32,400 mph, that comes out to 86,886" noncombat. 10" of Flight with 13 doublings costs 80 Active Points and comes to 81,920" noncombat, or 30,548 mph. Alternatively, 5" of Flight, with MegaScale to the 10,000 km level costs 22 Active Points and, with the Extra Time limitation, comes out to 50,000 kph, or 31,250 mph. For those using the "more realistic" optional Cumulative Flight advantage, 5" of Flight with the x16,000 multiple has an Active Point cost of 45 and leads to a top speed of 80,000" or 29,832 mph. I wonder what sort of Enhanced Sense powers it would have... [Edited to add: On consideration, I'd use the standard Sensors VPP option from Star Hero to simulate most NASA probe sensors. Those geniuses at JPL have been able to pull quite a few rabbits out of quite a few hats by correlating individual elements from the eleven instruments carried aboard...] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuk Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 Originally posted by AlHazred With a velocity of 32,400 mph, that comes out to 86,886" noncombat. 10" of Flight with 13 doublings costs 80 Active Points and comes to 81,920" noncombat, or 30,548 mph. Alternatively, 5" of Flight, with MegaScale to the 10,000 km level costs 22 Active Points and, with the Extra Time limitation, comes out to 50,000 kph, or 31,250 mph. For those using the "more realistic" optional Cumulative Flight advantage, 5" of Flight with the x16,000 multiple has an Active Point cost of 45 and leads to a top speed of 80,000" or 29,832 mph. It has way less flight than that. It didn't acheive it's current velocity under it's own power -- it only has a little flight so it can turn. Now, work out the throwing strength of the rocket that launched it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 Originally posted by Chuk It has way less flight than that. It didn't acheive it's current velocity under it's own power -- it only has a little flight so it can turn. It's true that it couldn't have relaunched itself if need be; the boost needed to escape Earth's gravity was provided by regular chemical rockets, which were provided in three stages. I'd count that as a 1 Continuing Charge, Charge Doesn't Recover, that lasts as long as needed to reach that speed, and has Side Effects (the exhaust) and probably Vehicular OAF. For greater realism, you could find out how long it took to reach that velocity and work backwards from there. Attitude control jets would be a separate power, maybe 1" of Flight, Cumulative to a smaller max than the rockets, probably with No Turn Mode, and consisting of a single Fuel Charge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Seeman Posted February 28, 2003 Report Share Posted February 28, 2003 Originally posted by Syberdwarf2 I'm not too worried either. I just find it ridiculous that NASA's "best and brightest", didn't stop to think that it'll burn up in an alien atmosphere just like any other meteor. Of course, I realize I probably don't have the whole story, but still... I don't think the intention was to have Pioneer land on an alien planet. It is meant to be detected by an already space faring race and then brought back to their scientists for study. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syberdwarf2 Posted March 1, 2003 Report Share Posted March 1, 2003 Originally posted by Ben Seeman I don't think the intention was to have Pioneer land on an alien planet. It is meant to be detected by an already space faring race and then brought back to their scientists for study. Good point Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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