Earth bids farewell to remote Pioneer spacecraft

From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Wed Feb 26 2003 - 01:40:45 MST

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    http://abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?/science/news/stories/s793584.htm

    News in Science 26/2/2003 Earth bids farewell to remote Pioneer
    spacecraft

    Earth has bid its final farewell to the Pioneer 10 spacecraft more
    than 30 years after the probe set off for the outer regions of our
    solar system.

    The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced
    earlier today that it had received Pioneer's last signal in January, and
    said it would no longer track the now remote object.

    "After it passed Mars on its long journey into deep space, it was
    venturing into places where nothing built by humanity had ever gone
    before," said Colleen Hartman, director of NASA's solar system exploration
    division. "It ranks among the most historic as well as the most
    scientifically rich exploration missions ever undertaken."

    Pioneer 10, one of a series of unmanned space probes, was launched in 1972
    to study the outer planets of the solar system. It was the first to go
    through the asteroid belt a doughnut-shaped ring between Earth and Mars
    some 280 million km wide and 80 million km thick. It travels at speeds of
    up to 72,000 kph and ranges in size from dust particles to rock chunks as
    big as Alaska.

    The craft was also the first to send back pictures of Saturn and Jupiter
    from close-up, and the first to go beyond Pluto, the furthestmost planet
    known.

    NASA last received a signal back from Pioneer 10 on January 22 from a
    distance of 12.2 billion km - 82 times the distance between the Earth and
    the Sun. It took the very faint radio signal 11 hours and 20 minutes to
    get home, traveling at the speed of light.

    "Originally designed for a 21-month mission, Pioneer 10 exceeded all
    expectations and lasted more than 30 years," said project manager Larry
    Lasher of NASA's Ames Research Centre in California. "It was a workhorse
    that far exceeded its warranty, and I guess you could say we got our
    money's worth."

    However, Pioneer is not the most remote human-made object. Voyager 1,
    launched at a higher velocity in 1977, is 87 times the distance between
    the Earth and Sun in another direction, said Pioneer 10 flight director
    David Lozier. Voyager 1 is still sending back signals.

    Although it seems that Pioneer 10 does not have any power to send any more
    signals to Earth, it will keep traveling for many years to come unless it
    runs into something. It's next destination is the red giant star
    Aldebaran, located in the eye of the constellation Taurus the Bull. The
    trip is expected to take two million years.

    If alien life were to ever open Pioneer 10, they would find a gold plaque
    with the image of a woman and a man and goodwill information about Earth.
    "It theoretically could be picked up if there is some intelligence out
    there," Lozier said.

     
                      Adam Tanner - Reuters

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    Amara Graps, PhD          email: amara@amara.com
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