|
|
Where are the "Pioneers"?
|
Pioneer 10 will continue into interstellar space, heading generally for the red star Aldebaran, which forms the eye of Taurus. Aldebaran is about 68 LY away and it will take Pioneer over 2 MY to reach it.
The Mission of Pioneer 11 has ended: the last communication from
Pioneer 11 was received in November 1995, shortly before the Earth's motion carried it out of view of the spacecraft antenna. The spacecraft is headed toward the constellation of Aquila, Northwest of the constellation of Sagittarius. Pioneer 11 will pass near one of the stars of Sagittarius in about 4 MY.
PIONEER SPACECRAFT CONDITIONS: very cold with most temperature readings at the bottom of their scale. Bus voltage about 26 volts (nominal is 28). Uplink received from DSS 14 at -131.7 dbm. Two commands received, both confirmed as executed. Geiger Tube Telescope Instrument on, and data received.
Project Phoenix has been observing Pioneer 10 at Arecibo in Puerto Rico through the auspices of the SETI Institute. The signal from Pioneer 10 was also picked up at Arecibo on 2 March 2002.
The last telemetered data from the University of Iowa cosmic ray instrument were as follows: 2 March 2002 (39 minutes of clean data) (r = 79.83 AU) 27 April 2002 (33 minutes of clean data) (r = 80.22 AU)
At GMT 17:27:30, Saturday, 4/28/01, the signal from Pioneer 10 was received at station 63 in Madrid, the first time since August 5/6 of 2000. So it appears that Pioneer 10 has life, albeit in another mode - i.e., only in a two-way coherent mode. We have been listening for the Pioneer 10 signal in a one-way downlink non-coherent transmission mode since last summer with no success. We therefore conclude that in order [for Pioneer 10] to talk to us, we need to talk to it. This means from now on, we need two-way round-trip light time (RTLT) passes to allow the Deep Space Network (DSN) to send up a strong stable signal to lock up with a coherent downlink signal.
|
|
![Where are the "Pioneers"?
Pioneer 10 will continue into interstellar space, heading generally for the red star Aldebaran, which forms the eye of Taurus. Aldebaran is about 68 LY away and it will take Pioneer over 2 MY to reach it.
The Mission of Pioneer 11 has ended: the last communication from
Pioneer 11 was received in November 1995, shortly before the Earth's motion carried it out of view of the spacecraft antenna. The spacecraft is headed toward the constellation of Aquila, Northwest of the constellation of Sagittarius. Pioneer 11 will pass near one of the stars of Sagittarius in about 4 MY.
PIONEER SPACECRAFT CONDITIONS: very cold with most temperature readings at the bottom of their scale. Bus voltage about 26 volts (nominal is 28). Uplink received from DSS 14 at -131.7 dbm. Two commands received, both confirmed as executed. Geiger Tube Telescope Instrument on, and data received.
Project Phoenix has been observing Pioneer 10 at Arecibo in Puerto Rico through the auspices of the SETI Institute. The signal from Pioneer 10 was also picked up at Arecibo on 2 March 2002.
The last telemetered data from the University of Iowa cosmic ray instrument were as follows: 2 March 2002 (39 minutes of clean data) (r = 79.83 AU) 27 April 2002 (33 minutes of clean data) (r = 80.22 AU)
At GMT 17:27:30, Saturday, 4/28/01, the signal from Pioneer 10 was received at station 63 in Madrid, the first time since August 5/6 of 2000. So it appears that Pioneer 10 has life, albeit in another mode - i.e., only in a two-way coherent mode. We have been listening for the Pioneer 10 signal in a one-way downlink non-coherent transmission mode since last summer with no success. We therefore conclude that in order [for Pioneer 10] to talk to us, we need to talk to it. This means from now on, we need two-way round-trip light time (RTLT) passes to allow the Deep Space Network (DSN) to send up a strong stable signal to lock up with a coherent downlink signal.
Parole chiave: Maps](albums/userpics/10008/normal_Voyagers-Heliosphere6b.JPG "Clicca per vedere l'immagine alla massima grandezza
==============
Where are the \"Pioneers\"?
Pioneer 10 will continue into interstellar space, heading generally for the red star Aldebaran, which forms the eye of Taurus. Aldebaran is about 68 LY away and it will take Pioneer over 2 MY to reach it.
The Mission of Pioneer 11 has ended: the last communication from
Pioneer 11 was received in November 1995, shortly before the Earth's motion carried it out of view of the spacecraft antenna. The spacecraft is headed toward the constellation of Aquila, Northwest of the constellation of Sagittarius. Pioneer 11 will pass near one of the stars of Sagittarius in about 4 MY.
PIONEER SPACECRAFT CONDITIONS: very cold with most temperature readings at the bottom of their scale. Bus voltage about 26 volts (nominal is 28). Uplink received from DSS 14 at -131.7 dbm. Two commands received, both confirmed as executed. Geiger Tube Telescope Instrument on, and data received.
Project Phoenix has been observing Pioneer 10 at Arecibo in Puerto Rico through the auspices of the SETI Institute. The signal from Pioneer 10 was also picked up at Arecibo on 2 March 2002.
The last telemetered data from the University of Iowa cosmic ray instrument were as follows: 2 March 2002 (39 minutes of clean data) (r = 79.83 AU) 27 April 2002 (33 minutes of clean data) (r = 80.22 AU)
At GMT 17:27:30, Saturday, 4/28/01, the signal from Pioneer 10 was received at station 63 in Madrid, the first time since August 5/6 of 2000. So it appears that Pioneer 10 has life, albeit in another mode - i.e., only in a two-way coherent mode. We have been listening for the Pioneer 10 signal in a one-way downlink non-coherent transmission mode since last summer with no success. We therefore conclude that in order [for Pioneer 10] to talk to us, we need to talk to it. This means from now on, we need two-way round-trip light time (RTLT) passes to allow the Deep Space Network (DSN) to send up a strong stable signal to lock up with a coherent downlink signal.
Parole chiave: Maps")
