[FPSPACE] What's Slowing the Pioneer Spacecraft? - Pondering a Mysterious Force

[LARRY KLAES]

What's Slowing the Pioneer Spacecraft? - Pondering a Mysterious Force

What goes up must come down - unless you throw it hard enough.  That's the 
lesson learned by four man-made objects to date, the Pioneer and Voyager 
space probes flung into the heavens to go where no man has gone before.  
[The author forgot New Horizons, but it hasn't even gotten to Saturn's orbit 
yet, plus they only put trinkets onboard instead of something meaningful for 
ETI or future humans to ponder like the Pioneers and Voyagers have.]

These grandfathers of gadgetry could still kick your iPhones whippersnapper 
of an ass with both high-gain antennae tied behind their back - they've gone 
above and beyond their functions in ways that make John McClain look like a 
wimpy quitter.

Pioneer 10 and 11 were launched in the early seventies.  They carried 
scientific instruments deep into the solar system, probing the asteroid 
belt, giving us our first close looks at Jupiter and Saturn and blazing a 
trail that the Voyager probes would follow.

These enduring explorers couldn't be returned to the store for repairs and 
were McGyvered together by remote control for years of their operation, 
rerouting power and running backup components while the only special sensor 
your new phone has triggers a self-destruct the instant it detects your 
warranty has expired.

Now, long after completing their intended missions these astronomical 
adventurers are giving scientists plenty to think about with the "Pioneer 
Anomaly".

Full article here:

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/12/pondering-the-p.html