Well I guess all good things must come to an end. I have started to
break down the PDP11/44 computer hardware used for sending commands
to Pioneer 10. I have boxed the PC Osprey from Strobe Data Inc.
http://www.strobedata.com/home/home.html that would have let us send
commands to Pioneer 10 had we needed to do so.

I want to personally thank Al Morgan of Strobe Data Inc for the use
of the Osprey and for helping this DEC illiterate. :-) We had sent
NO-OP commands to Pioneer 10 to verify we could send the CONSCAN
maneuver but never had an opportunity to do that. (Al, I will be
glad to bring it back the next time we are up to see the folks in
Woodinville, just North of you folks in Redmond Washington.)

The last attempt to listen to Pioneer 10 we should have been bore
sighted and Spain didn't see anything. The bus voltage had been
getting lower and SETI had said they saw a lower power level the last
time they tracked it.

You know what it is like to have a flash light battery get weak. The
light just gets dimmer and dimmer. When you only start out with an
eight watt transmitter, that is now less and less, you reach a point
where the noise here on Earth is stronger than the signal you are
looking for.

Thirty years of flying away can do that. Being 82.24 AU (82 times
the distance of Earth from the Sun) makes it even harder to hear what
you are saying, if in fact you had the strength to say something.

When I finish cleaning out, I will go to half time also. Will give
me more time at home to talk with you folks. Will watch with you
and look up as we go to Mars.

Maybe someone will talk more about going to the Moon if TransOrbital
is successful. http://www.transorbital.net/
I would really like to see us do more than just take pictures, but
will take what I can get.

http://www.KelloggSerialReports.net/

--- Dare To Dream, I Do. --- LRK ---

Larry

===================================================

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 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 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.

Full Story - http://amesnews.arc.nasa.gov/releases/2003/03_25HQ.html
(also at http://www.nasa.gov/HP_news_03082.html  and text only version
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2003/03-082.txt  ) - LRK -

==========================================================

Feb. 25, 2003
Michael Mewhinney
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
(Phone: 650/604-3937)

Email: Michael.S.Mewhinney@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 03-082HQ

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 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 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 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.

Pioneer 10 was built by TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, Calif., and was
launched 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 also charted the gas giant's
intense radiation belts, located the planet's magnetic field, and
established 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 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. At 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 (DSN) 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.

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 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 two million years
to reach it. Its sister ship, Pioneer 11, ended its mission September
30, 1995, when the last transmission from the spacecraft was
received. Information about Pioneer 10 is on the Internet at:

http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PNhome.html

Related Images -
http://amesnews.arc.nasa.gov/releases/2001/01images/Pioneer10/2pioneer10.html

==========================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==========================================================

http://www.KelloggSerialReports.net/

Larry Kellogg's Radio Weblog
http://radio.weblogs.com/0119030/

--

Larry R. Kellogg

lkellogg@mail.arc.nasa.gov
http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/SFDivision/index.html
http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/resources/news.htm