SETI public: Pioneer 10 Status Report for February 23, 2000

[Larry Klaes <lklaes@bbn.com>]

http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PNStat.html

STATUS UPDATED: 23 February 2000 

Pioneer 10 

(Launched 2 March 1972) 

Distance from Sun (1 February 2000): 74.46 AU 
Speed relative to the Sun: 12.24 km/sec (27,380 mph) 
Distance from Earth: 11.07 billion kilometers (6.879 billion miles) 
Round-trip Light Time: 20 hours 30 minutes 

PIONEER 10 TO EARTH! One more successful precession maneuver to point 
the spacecraft to Earth was accomplished on 11-12 February 2000. The 
signal level increased 0.5-0.75 dBM as result of the maneuver. This 
was the 7th successful maneuver that has been done in the dark since 
26 January 1997. 

It was determined at that time that the RTG power had been degraded to 
the point where the spacecraft transmitter had to be turned off to attain 
enough power to perform the procedure.

After 90 minutes in the blind the transmitter was turned back on again. 
The round-trip light time during this latest maneuver was 20 hours 
34 minutes. 

Larry Lasher, Pioneer Project Manager 


PIONEER 10 SUPPORTS ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY! Pioneer 10 continues to be 
tracked by the DSN. Science data are being received as the weak signal 
is being analyzed for advanced concept support of chaos theory.