But even at this great distance and with near empty batteries the little robotic explorer continues to return valuable data about the extreme edges of the solar "atmosphere".

It had been hoped that the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft would moved beyond the reaches of the solar wind but as we are now in the solar maximum the Sun's solar wind continues to dominate the outer reaches of Sol.

According to the latest Pioneer 10 status report, "the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) continue to provide sufficient power to support the current spacecraft load of transmitter, receiver, command and data handling as well as the Geiger Tube Telescope (GTT) science instrument.

The RTGs (plutonium batteries) are currently providing approximately 65 Watts of power (about 42% of the 155 Watts launch value).

The science and transmitter are turned off to provide enough power to fire the attitude control engines for the biannual spacecraft pointing maneuvers towards the Sun (the latest maneuver was executed on 2/11-12/00). The battery voltage is often discharged and charged.

However, the battery does not support any of the load, being charged to only about 1 volt at its peak, down from its nominal value of 9 volts.

The Bus Voltage is at a steady 27 Volts with a Bus Current of about 1.3 Amps.

The platform temperature is still within acceptable limits at -41 degrees F (the nominal range is between -63 F to 180 F).

The Deep Space Network (DSN) continues to provide good data with the received signal strength of -178 dBm (only a few dBm from the receiver threshold of -180 dBm).

Although powerwise Pioneer 10 is operating okay with one science instrument on, the DSN may not be able to get good telemetry lock as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) continues to decrease.

Even though in a year the DSN may still be able to get good telemetry lock, being this close to the receiver threshold and losing about 0.3 dBm/yr due to range, maintaining contact will be a challenge.

(From update report by Ric Campo, Pioneer Operations Supervisor)

WAY OUT THERE
Pioneer 10 Performs Maneuver 10 Hours Out
Washington - February 24, 2000 - Pioneer 10 has successfully been commanded to perform a precession maneuver to repoint the spacecraft towards Earth. The operation was accomplished on February 11-12 with the signal level increasing 0.5-0.75 dBM as result of the maneuver.

Pioneer Links

Pioneer Home Page

SPACEDAILY HEADLINES

Nov 02, 2006