P
PoorOldSpike
Guest
VIXIS- Captain Klaa, we have a target in sight. A probe of ancient origin.
KLAA- Difficult to hit?
VIXIS- Most difficult.
KLAA-Good
KLAA- All weapons to my control. Scope!
KLAA (after destroying Pioneer 10)- Shooting space garbage is no test of a warrior's mettle. I need a target that fires back.
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From net- PIONEER 10 SPACECRAFT SENDS LAST SIGNAL
"After more than 30 years, Pioneer's last, very weak signal was received on Jan. 22, 2003.
Pioneer 10 was launched March 2, 1972, on a three-stage Atlas-Centaur rocket. Pioneer 10 reached a speed of 32,400 mph needed for the flight to Jupiter, making it the fastest human-made object to leave the Earth; fast enough to pass the moon in 11 hours and to cross Mars' orbit, about 50 million miles away, in just 12 weeks.
The spacecraft was the first to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter.
Following its encounter with Jupiter, Pioneer 10 entered the outer regions of the solar system.
At last contact, Pioneer 10 was 7.6 billion miles from Earth, or 82 times the nominal distance between the Sun and the Earth.
As Earth's first emissary into space, it is carrying a gold plaque that describes what we look like, where we are, and the date when the mission began.
Pioneer 10 will continue to coast silently as a ghost ship into interstellar space, heading generally for the red star Aldebaran, which forms the eye of the constellation Taurus (The Bull). Aldebaran is about 68 light-years away.
It will take Pioneer 10 more than two million years to reach it."
