[astroCS] PIONEER 10 - asi posledny signal...
Jan Rybak
choc at ta3.sk
Mon Mar 3 06:16:18 UTC 2003
Vazene kolegyne a vazeni kolegovia,
mozno Vas zaujme nasledovna sprava, ktoru ste dufam nedostali uz z
ineho zdroja.
Prijemnu pracu praje
Jano Rybak (choc at astro.sk)
TL, 3/3/2003
> Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 14:58:47 -0800
> From: "NASANews at Ames" <nasanews at mail.arc.nasa.gov>
> Subject: PIONEER 10 SPACECRAFT SENDS LAST SIGNAL
> Michael Mewhinney Feb. 25, 2003
> NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
> Phone: 650/604-3937 or 650/604-9000
> E-mail: Michael.S.Mewhinney at nasa.gov
>
>
> RELEASE: 03-13AR
>
> PIONEER 10 SPACECRAFT SENDS LAST SIGNAL
>
> After more than 30 years, it appears the venerable Pioneer 10
> spacecraft has sent its last signal to Earth. Pioneer's last, very
> weak signal was received
> on Jan. 22, 2003.
>
> NASA engineers report that Pioneer 10's radioisotope power source has
> decayed, and it may not have enough power to send additional
> transmissions to Earth. NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) did not
> detect a signal during the last contact attempt on Feb. 7, 2003. The
> previous three contacts, including the Jan. 22 signal, were very
> faint, with no telemetry received. The last time a Pioneer 10 contact
> returned telemetry data was April 27, 2002. NASA has no additional
> contact attempts planned for Pioneer 10.
>
> "Pioneer 10 was a pioneer in the true sense of the word. 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 Dr. Colleen Hartman, director of NASA's Solar System Exploration
> Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington. "It ranks among the most
> historic as well as the most scientifically rich exploration missions
> ever undertaken," she said.
>
> "Originally designed for a 21-month mission, Pioneer 10 exceeded all
> expectations and lasted more than 30 years. It was a workhorse that
> far exceeded its warranty, and I guess you could say we got our
> money's worth," said Pioneer 10 Project Manager, Dr. Larry Lasher of
> NASA Ames Research Center, located in California's Silicon Valley.
>
> Pioneer 10 was built by TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, Calif., and was
> launched on March 2, 1972 on a three-stage Atlas-Centaur rocket.
> Pioneer 10 reached a speed of 32,400 mph needed for the flight to
> Jupiter, making it the fastest human-made object to leave the Earth;
> fast enough to pass the moon in 11 hours and to cross Mars' orbit,
> about 50 million miles away, in just 12 weeks.
>
> On July 15, 1972, Pioneer 10 entered the asteroid belt, a
> doughnut-shaped area that measures some 175 million miles wide and 50
> million miles thick. The material in the belt travels at speeds up to
> 45,000 mph and ranges in size from dust particles to rock chunks as
> big as Alaska.
>
> Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid
> belt, considered a spectacular achievement, and then headed toward
> Jupiter. Accelerating to a speed of 82,000 mph, Pioneer 10 passed by
> Jupiter on December 3, 1973.
>
> The spacecraft was the first to make direct observations and obtain
> close-up images of Jupiter. Pioneer 10 also charted the gas giant's
> intense radiation belts, located the planet's magnetic field, and
> established that Jupiter is predominantly a liquid planet. In 1983,
> Pioneer 10 became the first human-made object to pass the orbit of
> Pluto, the most distant planet from the sun.
>
> Following its encounter with Jupiter, Pioneer 10 explored the outer
> regions of the solar system, studying energetic particles from the
> sun (solar wind), and cosmic rays entering our portion of the Milky
> Way. The spacecraft continued to make valuable scientific
> investigations in the outer regions of the solar system until its
> science mission ended on March 31, 1997.
>
> Since that time, Pioneer 10's weak signal has been tracked by the DSN
> as part of a new advanced concept study of communication technology
> in support of NASA's future Interstellar Probe mission. At last
> contact, Pioneer 10 was 7.6 billion miles from Earth, or 82 times the
> nominal distance between the sun and the Earth. A that distance, it
> takes more than 11 hours and 20 minutes for the radio signal,
> traveling at the speed of light, to reach the Earth.
>
> "From Ames Research Center and the Pioneer Project, we send our
> thanks to the many people at the Deep Space Network and the Jet
> Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), who made it possible to hear the
> spacecraft signal for this long," said Pioneer 10 Flight Director
> David Lozier, also of NASA Ames.
>
> Pioneer 10 explored Jupiter, traveled twice as far as the most
> distant planet in our solar system, and as Earth's first emissary
> into space, is carrying a gold plaque that describes what we look
> like, where we are and the date when the mission began. Pioneer 10
> will continue to coast silently as a ghost ship through deep space
> into interstellar space, heading generally for the red star
> Aldebaran, which forms the eye of the constellation Taurus (The
> Bull). Aldebaran is about 68 light years away. It will take Pioneer
> 10 more than 2 million years to reach it. Its sister ship, Pioneer
> 11, ended it mission Sept. 30, 1995, when the last transmission from
> the spacecraft was received.
>
> Further information about Pioneer 10 is available on the Internet at:
>
> http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PNhome.html
>
> -end -
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