Out of the Blue

Pioneer 10 calls home on birthday is one of many interesting links passed along for today by AndyS. Aren't these probes supposed to start transforming themselves into doomsday devices soon? I remember the plot of at least one Star Trek episode as well as Star Trek: The Motion Picture (veeger) centered around just that. I guess that shouldn't be the most likely scenario, but it seems more plausible than still being able to contact this thing 30 years later.

Play Time: Conway's Game of Life. Come to life on the web. Thanks EvilToast.
Weird Science: Tiny bubbles create nuclear fusion -- maybe. Thanks Jamie Fullerton.
Wild Science: Huge ice field found on Mars. Thanks [MP] Wolverine [MP]. And remember what the bard said: 'beware the ice of Mars...'
Auction of the Day: The Excite Mazda Miata. Thanks Daniel LiButti.
Image of the Day: APOD - Earth in True Color. Thanks again AndyS.
Movie of the Day: Torm3ntor. Thanks Tomas Skoie.

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Pioneer 10
Mar 5, 2002, 20:53
Jim
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Pioneer 10 Mar 5, 2002, 20:53
Mar 5, 2002, 20:53
Jim
 
Its amazing that the transmitter still works after 30 years, and is still "audible" given its limited power and great distance. How much stuff do we still have around from 1972 that still works?

One of the most interesting aspects of these things to me is what is called "round trip light time", or how long before acknowledgement is received for a signal sent to a distant spacecraft. 22 Hours in Pioneer 10's case. But Voyager I is even further out, and I check the status of the Voyager probes on the JPL page once or twice a year: http://vraptor.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager/voyager.html

23h 18m round trip light time- nearly a full day. Call the spacecraft at 8:00 today, and it will be 7:42 tomorrow before you get an answer. By comparison, when the Apollo astronauts were on the moon, the signal delay was just under 3 seconds.

Jim
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