TACON019@ysub.ysu.edu (Fred Ullom) (12/18/90)
I saw on the news this morning that today is the 25th anniversary of pioneer 6. They said it was the oldest functioning satellite. What type of data is pioneer 6 recording? and do we still find this information useful? or by "functioning" do they mean simple that it still works and its long outlived its usefulness. Thanks, ------------------------------------------------------------------------ tacon019@ysub.ysu.edu (Fred S. Ullom) Youngstown State University ------------------------------------------------------------------------
mrb1@cbnewsh.att.com (maurice.r.baker) (12/20/90)
In article <90352.073839TACON019@ysub.ysu.edu>, TACON019@ysub.ysu.edu (Fred Ullom) writes: > I saw on the news this morning that today is the 25th anniversary of > pioneer 6. They said it was the oldest functioning satellite. According to a nice article in the 12-17-90 issue of SATELLITE NEWS, its original 1965 design life was only 6 months! > What type of data is pioneer 6 recording? and do we still find this > information useful? or by "functioning" do they mean simple that it > still works and its long outlived its usefulness. It still sends back scientific data although only 3 of its 6 onboard experiments still work. It is monitored by the Deep Space Network some- what intermittently due to the demands of Galileo, Ulysses, Magellan, etc. It will be tracked for 2 hours on 12/17, perhaps in honor of its 25th anniversary. The last time it was tracked was 7/4/90, just to give you a perspective on what "intermittently" means. It sends back plasma and charged particle data, and can still be used for solar wind experiments when other conditions are acceptable. Of particular interest to sci.space.shuttle readers who have followed the recent discussion on solar flare warning satellite development, etc. is that Pioneer 6 has warned of solar storms several weeks in advance of their ar- rival here on earth. It can send back solar flare data from the "back side" of the sun before the active part rotates towards earth. From a historical perspective, Pioneer 6 has travelled about 15.6 billion miles (apologies to the metric system fans out there :-) and transmitted back more than 15 billion bits of data on the sun. It made the 1st detailed measurements of the sun's atmosphere as well as measuring its corona and the Comet Kohoutek tail. For the fiscally minded, it was built by TRW under NASA contract and launched in 1965 for about $6 million [in 1965 dollars]. Dr. Alan Lazarus of MIT (who works with Dr. Herbert Bridge, original principal researcher for project) was quoted as saying: "The project had a short management chain. Charlie Hall [original project mgr.] really insisted on that and it was very successful. When everyone has to sign off on everyone else's job it gets very expensive. The management team was very close to the experimenters and was able to give quick feedback and there was not a lot of paperwork. Some of today's projects might be able to benefit from going back to basics in the structure of things." 'Nuff said....... M. Baker homxc!jj1028 (with thanks to SATELLITE NEWS for this unauthorized reference to its article. It's published by Phillips Publishing, Inc. at 301-340-2100.)
macklin@garnet.berkeley.edu (Macklin Burnham) (12/21/90)
In article <1990Dec19.194125.18440@cbnewsh.att.com> mrb1@cbnewsh.att.com (maurice.r.baker) writes: >miles (apologies to the metric system fans out there :-) and transmitted >back more than 15 billion bits of data on the sun. It made the 1st detailed ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ At a data rate of 8 bits per second! Mack Burnham
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (12/29/90)
In article <1990Dec19.194125.18440@cbnewsh.att.com> mrb1@cbnewsh.att.com (maurice.r.baker) writes: >Of particular interest to sci.space.shuttle readers who have followed the >recent discussion on solar flare warning satellite development, etc. is that >Pioneer 6 has warned of solar storms several weeks in advance of their ar- >rival here on earth... In fact, during Project Apollo, Pioneers 6-9 were part of an organized solar-flare forecasting effort. The matter was rather more important to the Apollo astronauts than it is to us today... -- "The average pointer, statistically, |Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology points somewhere in X." -Hugh Redelmeier| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry