May 10, 2005
It began with the search for Planet X. By 1979, Pioneer 10 had accomplished its original mission to become the first Earth-born spacecraft to explore Jupiter and was on its way out of our solar system, flying toward the star Aldebaran ? a destination it should reach some two million years from now.
On its way out, Pioneer 10 became a useful partner in an experiment of celestial mechanics. By closely monitoring its trajectory, scientists might detect an unexpected gravitational tug that could betray the existence of the long-hypothesized Planet X. Based largely on unexplained motions in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, several 20th-century astronomers had suggested the existence of an undiscovered world at the edge of our solar system.
...
The Spacecraft
On March 2, 1972, Pioneer 10 was launched on an Atlas/Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral. Pioneer 10 was Earth?s first space probe to an outer planet, encountering Jupiter on December 4, 1973. Pioneer 11 followed its sister ship to Jupiter, and continued on to encounter Saturn on September 1, 1979.
...
What do we do next?
We need more data. With the spacecraft now silent, we cannot expect future data, so we must look to the past. In fact, there are hundreds of tapes containing data taken before 1987, when the spacecraft were between 10 and 40 AU from the Sun. This data from the time the Pioneers were still in the midst of this planetary realm could be crucial to solving the anomaly.
Unfortunately, this data is stored on hundreds of ancient nine-track tapes, now lodged under a staircase at JPL. The tapes can only be read by equally ancient computers, giants compared to modern machines, which are slated for demolition. We must transfer this data to more modern media readable by up-to-date computers, but time is running out.
The Planetary Society has offered to help with this task. They are currently seeking the funds to hire the help we need to save the data. When that task is complete, the Society has offered to assist in bringing in a senior researcher to take another, independent, look at our results and see if there is anything we missed.
We must press on. The Pioneer anomaly is waiting to be explained. Whether it turns out to be an annoying spacecraft effect or a revolution in physics, it is a mystery that must be solved as we continue to explore the universe around us.
http://www.planetary.org/news/2005/pioneer_anomaly1_0510.html
and
After years of analysis, but without a final conclusion, NASA, astonishingly, gave up trying to solve the "Pioneer Anomaly" and provided no funds to analyze the data. The Pioneer data exists on a few hundred ancient 7- and 9-track magnetic tapes, which can only be read on "antique" outdated computers. The agency is going to scrap, literally demolish, the only computers able to access and process that data in the next few months!
and
Help save the "Pioneer Anomaly
if we can build a list of members and then send this to NASA, or The Planetorya Society, i dont know if this will help
but ...
Sir Ulli
It began with the search for Planet X. By 1979, Pioneer 10 had accomplished its original mission to become the first Earth-born spacecraft to explore Jupiter and was on its way out of our solar system, flying toward the star Aldebaran ? a destination it should reach some two million years from now.
On its way out, Pioneer 10 became a useful partner in an experiment of celestial mechanics. By closely monitoring its trajectory, scientists might detect an unexpected gravitational tug that could betray the existence of the long-hypothesized Planet X. Based largely on unexplained motions in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, several 20th-century astronomers had suggested the existence of an undiscovered world at the edge of our solar system.
...
The Spacecraft
On March 2, 1972, Pioneer 10 was launched on an Atlas/Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral. Pioneer 10 was Earth?s first space probe to an outer planet, encountering Jupiter on December 4, 1973. Pioneer 11 followed its sister ship to Jupiter, and continued on to encounter Saturn on September 1, 1979.
...
What do we do next?
We need more data. With the spacecraft now silent, we cannot expect future data, so we must look to the past. In fact, there are hundreds of tapes containing data taken before 1987, when the spacecraft were between 10 and 40 AU from the Sun. This data from the time the Pioneers were still in the midst of this planetary realm could be crucial to solving the anomaly.
Unfortunately, this data is stored on hundreds of ancient nine-track tapes, now lodged under a staircase at JPL. The tapes can only be read by equally ancient computers, giants compared to modern machines, which are slated for demolition. We must transfer this data to more modern media readable by up-to-date computers, but time is running out.
The Planetary Society has offered to help with this task. They are currently seeking the funds to hire the help we need to save the data. When that task is complete, the Society has offered to assist in bringing in a senior researcher to take another, independent, look at our results and see if there is anything we missed.
We must press on. The Pioneer anomaly is waiting to be explained. Whether it turns out to be an annoying spacecraft effect or a revolution in physics, it is a mystery that must be solved as we continue to explore the universe around us.
http://www.planetary.org/news/2005/pioneer_anomaly1_0510.html
and
After years of analysis, but without a final conclusion, NASA, astonishingly, gave up trying to solve the "Pioneer Anomaly" and provided no funds to analyze the data. The Pioneer data exists on a few hundred ancient 7- and 9-track magnetic tapes, which can only be read on "antique" outdated computers. The agency is going to scrap, literally demolish, the only computers able to access and process that data in the next few months!
and
Help save the "Pioneer Anomaly
if we can build a list of members and then send this to NASA, or The Planetorya Society, i dont know if this will help
but ...
Sir Ulli
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