Pioneer 10 spacecraft falls silent after nearly 31 years

Associated Press | February 25, 2003

[HAL9000]

LOS ANGELES (AP) - 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, NASA said Tuesday.

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 the two previous signals were very faint. The Deep Space Network heard nothing from Pioneer 10 during a final attempt at contact on Feb. 7. 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.

On the Net:

Pioneer 10: spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PNhome.html

[Arkie2]

Man, didn't you know it came back to give Captain Kirk a hard time in Star Trek 1? Must've hit a time warp.

[Alouette]

[strela]

Don't worry, we'll get it back in a few years. Inside a big honkin' blue cloud that shoots lightning bolts and threatens to turn the Earth into data patterns.

[Alouette]

explanation of the plaque:

A plaque carried by Pioneers 10 & 11, intended for intelligent life.
Symbols included: a hydrogen atom, solar coordinates of the sun and Earth, male and female figures, and Pioneer itself.

[Age of Reason]

Interesting picture.

Let's see . . .

The guy has short hair and the woman has long hair.

The guy seems standing a little closer to the viewer.

And it's the guy who takes the initiative by holding up his hand, while the woman stands obediently by his side.

The woman's hips are rather large compared to today's ideal.

They look like people of European descent, with blonde hair, too.

This is a sexist depiction having no evidence of diversity.

They'd send up a different picture these days.

Then imagine the confusion were an alien to intercept both versions.

[ken in texas]

. . . after nearly 31 years . . .

This is just freaking amazing. For all of the stuff we still don't seem to get working right... with our throwaway society that wears out a VCR in 2 years - that this spacecraft is still functioning boggles my mind. It is also a tribute to the talented engineers on the design team.

[Alouette]

This is a sexist depiction having no evidence of diversity.

They'd send up a different picture these days.

IIRC, the feminists and the multiculturalists had a hissy fit over this illustration, but the NASA folks (all white guys back then) just laughed at them.

[The FRugitive]

LOL, today they'd have a mexican, a lesbian rabbi, and a transexual in a wheelchair.

[DeuceTraveler]

I love reading this stuff. Too bad our space program seems to lack vision of late.

[Cultural Jihad]

What was that science fiction short story about the race of aliens who discovered and marveled over the one sole surviving artifact of human life? At the very end of the novel, the aliens stared wonderously at the undecypherable writing upon the roll of celluloid: "A film by Walt Disney."

[concentric circles]

I wonder if we'll find a way to get back in touch one day?
And don't you hate throwing away an old cell phone?

[Physicist]

I was at JPL (test engineer) when the big upgrade to the data rate in the gigabytes/second range came with Magellan.

Uh...that's 15x faster than a hard disk...

[Redcloak]

"Sub-commander Zarg, what do you make of the alien artifact?"

"It appears to be from 'Earth'."

"I've never heard of the 'Urth' system."

"'Earth' is the local name. The name roughly translates to 'The Planet of the Naked White People'."

[admiralsn]

Some females 2 billion miles out there are gonna be pretty disappointed when they see this picture. They must've used a French guy as the male model.

[cmsgop]

How did David Hasslehoff and Barbra Strisand get this Gig ?

[bmwcyle]

NASA just can't anything working, just kidding. Goodbye old friend.

[Bob J]

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[Warhead W-88]

Actually, the figures were deliberately drawn to have a mix of racial features. The man's nose, for example, is broad and flat like an African's; he also has what is meant to be curly-kinky hair. The woman's eyes are slightly slanted.

Of course, the problem is that such tiny details tend to be overshadowed by the golden color of the plaque, which makes the man's afro-esque hair look blonde, and the woman's long straight Aisan hair look blonde, and makes them both look sort of white, or Asian.

And there was a controversy at the time. Feminists went apeshit over the lack of visible genital on the woman; one shrieking harpy wrote a letter to NASA saying that this made her want to cut off the man's, well, head.

Carl Sagan talks about this in one of his books.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Yeah, and in 2 million years those people will be extinct and earth will be the Planet of the Apes and Charlton Heston is gonna want to ring Roddy McDowell's neck.

[Jhoffa_]

Ewww!

Stop posting pornography on FR!! And tell the Smut peddlers at NASA to go open an "amateur" site if that's what they want to do, but to pay for it themselves!

(It must have been cold wherever that was drawn.. )