Pioneer 10

The tiny spacecraft, launched by the U.S. on March 2, 1972, was at the time the fastest man-made object launched: it reached 52,150 kph (32,400 mph) on its 21-month mission to take close-up photos and magnetic field measurements of Jupiter. After that successful encounter, NASA kept in contact with the spacecraft, using it for a variety of scientific research efforts such as studying solar wind from our sun and cosmic rays from outside our solar system. On January 22, the Deep Space Network, run by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, received a telemetry signal that showed the spacecraft's power system is nearly depleted; without power to run its transmitter, they don't expect to hear from it again and declared its mission completed on February 7. Now over 12 billion km (7.5 billion miles, 82 AU, or 11.3 light hours) away, the next thing in its path is the star Aldebaran. At its present speed, it will get there in just over 2 million years. From This is True for 23 February 2003 Suggestions for further reading: Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes by Michael Benson Amazon Price: $16.47 Customer Review: I went looking for a book of photos of the solar system after viewing a fabulous display at the Smithsonian. This book has absolutely gorgeous photos of the solar system. It was exactly what I wanted. However, I tried to be frugal and buy the paperba...   Lives of the Planets: A Natural History of the Solar System by Richard Corfield Amazon Price: $1.90 Customer Review: As already noted, this is a history of the various satellite missions to the planets instead of the planets themselves. And that's OK; I expected such, having read the reviews and a few sample passages in the store. What shocked me, though, was Cor...   Space Systems Failures: Disasters and Rescues of Satellites, Rockets and Spac... by David M. Harland, Ralph D. Lorenz Amazon Price: $29.67 Customer Review: ... by which I mean a small amount of information about each of a large number of facts, with very little analysis or insight. And, just about as interesting to read as chapter after chapter of encyclopedia entries. Looking at ea...   Ambassadors from Earth: Pioneering Explorations with Unmanned Spacecraft (Out... by Jay Gallentine Amazon Price: $25.51 Customer Review: Gallentine emphasizes the human foundation of unmanned spaceflight. Appropriately the book mixes tragedy and comedy. The former includes the first third of the book, which describes the Soviet program's impressive firsts (in orbiting an artificial sa...   Lunar Outpost: The Challenges of Establishing a Human Settlement on the Moon ... by Erik Seedhouse Amazon Price: $23.07 Customer Review: This is a well-researched and informative book, but don't be expecting a casual read. This is purpose-driven material, and reads like it. It serves as a firm grounding in the new thinking behind lunar bases and more, but does so in the fashion of a d...   Newsfeed display by CaRP

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