*The thing I like best about this weird,
distributed-enterprise, "memories of the Space Age"
pitch is the dead-media angle. They don't
want to launch a fresh satellite to explore
cosmic mysteries – they just want to
*preserve the data that's already there
and now vanishing.*
From: [email protected]
Subject: Solve the Mystery – The Pioneer Anomaly
Date: May 11, 2005 6:10:49 PM CDT
Reply-To: [email protected]
Dear Society Member,
Something strange is happening in the outer reaches of
our solar system. The Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft are
not where they are supposed to be.
These missions, launched in 1972 and 1973, have covered
hundreds of millions of miles, heading toward the edge
of our solar system. But something is holding them back.
Each year, they fall behind in their projected travel
by about 8,000 miles.
Scientists are being forced to consider the unthinkable:
something may be wrong with our understanding of
The Laws of Physics. Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist
Dr. John Anderson and his colleagues have been searching
for an explanation since 1980. But as of yet, they have found
nothing conclusive.
Right now, the Planetary Society has a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to help solve this mystery of epic
proportions...and maybe even rewrite the world's
science textbooks!
After years of analysis, but without a final conclusion,
NASA, astonishingly, gave up trying to solve this
"Pioneer Anomaly" and provided no funds to analyze
the data. The Pioneer data exists on a few hundred
ancient 7- and 9-track magnetic tapes, which can only
be read on "antique" outdated computers. The agency is
going to scrap, literally demolish, the only computers
able to access and process that data in the next few
months!
So unless we act now, an extraordinary,
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity will be lost.
Help save the "Pioneer Anomaly" data
and solve this mystery at:
https://planetary.org/donations.html
Let me explain this mystery in more detail. It starts
with something that, when first noticed, seemed trivial:
two of America's oldest space probes – the Pioneer
probes which studied Jupiter and Saturn – seemed to be
not quite where they should have been.
The trajectories of these two spacecraft were deviating
from the known laws of motion, the laws given to us by
Newton and Einstein, and "losing" about 8,000 miles in
a year. And...that figure keeps growing!
That may not sound like much when you are dealing with
spacecraft traveling at nearly 30,000 miles per hour
relative to the Sun. But it was enough to alert
Dr. John Anderson, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
scientist who was charged with monitoring the
two spacecraft.
Being a careful and patient space scientist, he refused
to jump to conclusions. He expected a simple explanation
would surface. Maybe the solar wind was affecting the
craft. Maybe heat leakage from the nuclear batteries
was the cause. So he spent years quietly searching for
an answer. Eventually he found other high-level
researchers, including Eunice Lau, Slava G. Turyshev
and Michael Nieto, to help seek an explanation.
For the last 10 years, the team has tried to explain
the anomaly with conventional physics, but ultimately
ruled out every possibility they considered. The most
obvious explanation still lies in the spacecraft
themselves, but the limited data analyzed does not
support any suggested mechanism.
What could possibly be the cause of this anomaly? No one
knows yet. But the team who has labored on this has
begun to suggest other possibilities – any one of which
would be truly astounding if proved true.
Could it be
. . . Dark Matter?
. . . An Acceleration of Time?
. . . A Change in the Laws of Gravity?
So, you can see, this is a mystery of the first order.
There appear to be two ways to possibly settle this
baffling question once and for all.
–The first option would be to launch a dedicated space
probe to investigate, following the Pioneer 10 trajectory,
and trying to recreate the anomaly. This particular
mission is an intriguing possibility, but it would cost
at least $500 million and is not now in the cards.
– The second option is a lot simpler: open up all of
the data ever returned by the two Pioneer spacecraft
including the 15 years of data from before 1987 – and
examine it in excruciating detail. Doing this will
provide a more precise picture of what happened to
Pioneer 10 over a much longer period of time, possibly
giving us the critical answer we need.
The second option is the best course of action. This
exciting project will cost about $250,000 to save the data
from destruction and do the complex analyses required to
seek an answer to this mystery...a small
price to pay in order to potentially revise our
understanding of gravity! Astonishingly, NASA is not
ready to do this.
If we do not act now, all of the crucial, older data
could be ignored or lost forever.
To act now go to:
https://planetary.org/donations.html
That's where The Planetary Society –
and you as a Member – enter the picture.
You and I – all of us who are Members of the Society –
have to start working immediately to see where this
knowledge can take us.
Once the data is recovered, we can work with Dr. Anderson
and his colleagues to do an exhaustive analysis of this
potential goldmine.
But we must have our Members' support and participation
to move forward with any project of this magnitude.
Ultimately it is your vision, your enthusiasm, and your
generosity that will move this pioneering project ahead.
I urge you to let us know your decision as soon as possible
– today if you can.
We don't have a moment to lose. NASA could begin
demolishing their old computer equipment in a few short
weeks. The data and this one-time opportunity for
discovery will be lost forever. The clock is ticking.
We've got to move quickly!
I hope we can count on you.
Sincerely,
Louis D. Friedman
Executive Director
P.S. If you haven't received it already, you will
probably be getting a letter about this project in
the mail. If you have already sent in your
donation we thank you.
https://planetary.org/donations.html
For more information on the Pioneer Anomaly go to:
http://planetary.org
