Posted on 03/02/2007 4:30:53 PM PST by blam
Computer sleuths try to crack Pioneer anomaly
19:24 02 March 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Stuart Clark
Because the tracking system for the Pioneer probes changed so much since their launches in the early 1970s, researchers have to look at each data file individually to put them in the same format (Image: NASA/ARC)
Scientists and engineers remain on course in their efforts to determine what caused the twin Pioneer spacecraft to apparently drift off course by hundreds of thousands of kilometres during their three-decade missions. Within a year, they expect to be able to decide whether this drift was caused by a fault on the spacecraft.
Launched 35 years ago on Friday, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to reach the outer Solar System and return pictures of Jupiter. It was followed by Pioneer 11, which launched on 5 April 1973 and also visited Saturn.
After these historic encounters, NASA kept track of the drifting spacecraft, finally losing contact with Pioneer 11 in 1995 and Pioneer 10 in 2003.
The so-called Pioneer anomaly showed up in the tracking data as a tiny deceleration for both spacecraft, even though they were heading in different directions. It was as if the Sun’s gravity was pulling a little harder than Newton’s laws predicted (see 13 things that do not make sense).
Escaping heat
The source of the deceleration has long been suspected to be heat escaping from the small nuclear generators onboard, known as RTGs (Radioisotope Thermal Generators). Previous analyses that claimed to rule out this effect have been contested.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.newscientist.com ...
Anyone think about the simple answer... they've both been picking up mass in the form of dust and particles for 30 years... variations in the particle density on the way through the solar system could easily have caused the drift.
Tech support keeps telling them, "Please for to be reobooting your computer, sir..."
Hi Alamo Girl:
Would an adjustment to the fine structure constant account for a slight increase in gravitational pull?
Easy...Bush's Fault!
I was going to say that the solar wind over time could blow them off course. I suppose that after time your gravity or electrical charge would pick up debris. Wonder if they accounted for either.
You're a Great American.
Oh great,
now were polluting outer space. Where's Gore!
thats--just--disturbing....
At the speed those thingas are going, wouldn't the dust just blow off?
Friction/resistance=de-acceleration. Space isn't totaly empty! Almost, but not quite.
microgravity would allow substantial amounts of material to accumulate under the right conditions.
Very interesting.
That would explain my need to buy larger pants sizes every few years...
.....global warming..?
In a word - no.
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