It was also the first space probe to send back information on interstellar space which remains very impressive for a craft built with the best tech of the early Seventies. It was only designed to get the scoop on Jupiter but I think NASA got it to hang in there to confirm some data on Uranus, Neptune and Pluto [no longer a planet]. 
 
When I was in grade school there was a piece on In the News between CBS's Saturday morning cartoons about Pioneer 9 and 10 being set up to for one last duty. Some object was messing with the astronomers' data on Pluto's orbit or whatnot. As the two probes exited our solar system, they would help confirm the existence of a possible tenth planet or worse, a black hole not visible to earth-based telescopes [Hubble was 10-plus years away]. Being a kid, the latter prospect sounded horrifying thanks to Sci Fi movies. By high school, I was in an Astronomy class and there was no mention of either possibility. Heck, 10's exit wasn't even mentioned along with the Kuiper Belt, which was probably the culprit or Pluto's three probable moons. I do recall the Oort Cloud which used to be the only source of comets until Kuiper was added to the solar equation. 
 
January 22, 2003 was the last signal Earth received. The transmission was rather faint and lacked accurate telemetry [position, velocity, etc.] because its power source had been too depleted to tell us. 
 
Currently, 10 is on its way to the Taurus constellation with a gold-anodized plaque showing the location of our system, the probe’s flight and what humans look like. The artwork designed by Dr. Carl Sagan received a lot of grief since the people were naked. Hey, he at least had the foresight not go with contemporary fashions. Intelligent life would avoid us if they learned there was an alien world populated by creatures wearing bell bottoms. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

The dumbed down story from the AP was easier to digest about Roadrunner. If you prefer the more complicated take, I did find the Los Alamos plug that doesn't require a log-in. 
 
Roadrunner is amazing on so many levels. First, it's made up of commercially available parts such as IBM's dual-core processors. I figured they'd use quad-core but this monster was six years in the making while dual-core was still on the horizon. Secondly, it only cost $100 million which is a huge bargain for a supercomputer. Normally one is accustomed to government agencies throwing billions at such projects, especially with the military applications Roadrunner has if you read the AP story. Finally, a dozen of these computers could fit in the starship Enterprise from the Sixties because it's only 6000 square feet which is less than 78 feet wide and long; there's no mention of its height yet I imagine it's no more than a standard rack [seven feet]. 
 
Futurist Syd Mead is right, the tech and possibilities of the future are sooner than we think. However, in my rebuttal, I am still waiting for that permanent moon base my grade school history book [written in the early Seventies] claimed would be operational in 1996. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

I was on pins and needles for this today since the last landing attempt failed and from the other things I've read, NASA has been batting .500 since the Viking missions in the Seventies when it comes to Mars. 
 
Somara and I caught the half hour of tension through the NASA station which my "defunct" Dish receiver still picks up for free [we had "cable" TV turned off last year but never physically disconnected it]. 
 
According to the people on NASA TV, the Phoenix nailed the landing with only a quarter degree off; meaning it's on a flat surface. Pretty amazing work, controlling a probe millions of miles away with a 15-minute delay. The solar array was deploying by the time we left for dinner and there should be pictures tomorrow night! 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

On this Earth Day, one story on Marketplace's morning report about Solar Storage made me feel better and optimistic. I think it could shut up solar's naysayers about the renewable [really infinite] source's scalability if the power it generates now can be put into "batteries." 
 
After work or during lunch, I'm dropping by HEB to trade in five plastic bags for a permanent "green" one. Somara and I need get a few more to cut down on those darned things when we shop too. Then again, out of control food prices reminiscent of the late Seventies will guarantee we can't afford more than three bags. 
 
Have a great Earth Day. I hope to make a trip to EA for recycling, maybe plant another tree this Summer and take the bus downtown a couple more times. Carpooling with Somara is something we plan to keep bugging Apple about, it influences which schedules we will receive. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

From what I remember reading in other books, various agencies of the US government were planning satellite launches before Sputnik scared everyone. More of the details on Explorer 1 are on the link. I'm very impressed that the gang at JPL whipped it together in three months and this initial success remained in orbit until 1970! This milestone is also important to me because it proved the existence of the Van Allen Belts which proved not to be so lethal, thus debunking the Moon Landing Hoax crowd. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

Another awesome site courtesy of Dr. Plait of Bad Astronomy fame. At Heavens-Above you can find out when ISS [Int’l Space Station] will be passing over your house, within a ten-day windows plus other semi-known satellites. I will need to get together with some people I know who live farther out of the city to get away from the light pollution to see things better. Course a telescope with someone who knows how to operate the coordinate system will help too. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

This bit of news won't do much for those with an irrational fear of spiders. I've seen much smaller cotton-candy-like webs around wooded areas of Texas before but the measurements on this one are impressive. I'm not afraid of the eight-legged creatures yet the picture in the story did make me think, "Ick!". Every other day, some stupid spider builds a web between my house and the closest tree. I always walk through the damned thing on the way to my car. It's a nusiance yet I'm grateful. If walked through that communal set up, I would need to call in sick and spend the morning getting finding a flamethrower to burn the rest of it. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

Today, the Voyager II probe was launched in 1977 and the Viking 1 in 1975. I remember Captain Kangaroo being interrupted a year later to show the world the first images of the Martian surface from Viking 1. However, the Voyager series of probes really impressed me with all those awesome pictures of Jupiter and its moons when they were showcased in National Geographic in 1980. 
 
NPR recently interviewed Terry Ferris, the man who selected the content of the record attached to the probes. I loved the Steve Martin joke the interviewer mentioned about the musical choices. 
 
Professor Ferris says there are instructions included plus the means to play the record. I only hope the it's not found by an alien equivalent of the RIAA, then they'll just want to find Earth to sue us for some "piracy" claim because we didn't copyright it with their greedy corporations. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

It's early August which means the annual Perseid Meteor shower is visible again and according to Dr. Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy fame, tonight is the best evening to watch it. These are his tips to get an optimal view. He confirmed what I thought this was, left over debris from something but I didn't know it was the comet Swift-Tuttle. Must be a heck of a comet to leave that much junk for the earth to pass through this type of result. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

Knowing what little goes through the brains of dogs and their fondness for sniffing everything, they may be jealous of these Bolivian dogs an explorer finally got confirmed, hence the creepy pictures. Too bad the Weekly World News went to being online only. I could picture waiting in line at HEB and there would be the headlines: Double-nosed dogs are Bat Boy’s pets or English-speaking cat teams up with two-nosed hound to fight in Iraq. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi