Voyager I -vs- Pioneer 10

[toothferry]

I'm reading National Geographic Feb 2006 and there is a nice article about Voyager 1, traveling at 40,000mph, will become the "first envoy to the stars" and has passed the termination shock. <br /><br />But I thought Pioneer 10 has already achieved all that a long time ago. Isn't that correct, or am I mistaken?

 

[harmonicaman]

This is a bit long but I thought is was a great read, enjoy:<br /> <br /><br />In a dark, cold, vacant neighborhood near the very edge of our solar system, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is set to break another record and become the explorer that has traveled farthest from home. <br /><br /> At approximately 2:10 p.m. Pacific time on February 17, 1998, Voyager 1, launched more than two decades ago, will cruise beyond the Pioneer 10 spacecraft and become the most distant human-created object in space at 10.4 billion kilometers (6.5 billion miles.) The two are headed in almost opposite directions away from the Sun. As with other spacecraft traveling past the orbit of Mars, both Voyager and Pioneer derive their electrical power from onboard nuclear batteries. <br /><br /> "For 25 years, the Pioneer 10 spacecraft led the way, pressing the frontiers of exploration, and now the baton is being passed from Pioneer 10 to Voyager 1 to continue exploring where no one has gone before," said Dr. Edward C. Stone, Voyager project scientist and director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. <br /><br /> "At almost 70 times farther from the Sun than the Earth, Voyager 1 is at the very edge of the Solar System. The Sun there is only 1/5,000th as bright as here on Earth -- so it is extremely cold and there is very little solar energy to keep the spacecraft warm or to provide electrical power. The reason we can continue to operate at such great distances from the Sun is because we have radioisotope thermal electric generators (RTGs) on the spacecraft that create electricity and keep the spacecraft operating," Stone said. "The fact that the spacecraft is still returning data is a remarkable technical achievement." <br /><br /> Voyager 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral on September 5, 1977. The spacecraft encountered Jupiter on March 5, 1979, and Saturn on November 12, 1980. <br /><br /> Then, because its trajectory was designed to fly close to Saturn's large moon Titan, Voyag

 

[billslugg]

Pioneer 10 is travelling more slowly than Voyager 1.<br />P10 is now 90 AU from the Sun while V1 is 98 AU away.<br />See:http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PNStat.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[toothferry]

thanks Harmonicaman and Bill, that certainly explains it for me

 

[lampblack]

<font color="yellow">Pioneer 10 is travelling more slowly than Voyager 1.<br />P10 is now 90 AU from the Sun while V1 is 98 AU away.<br />See:http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PNStat.html </font><br /><br />Far out!!<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#0000ff"><strong>Just tell the truth and let the chips fall...</strong></font> </div>

 

[5stone10]

Come on - you can do beter than that !

 

[lampblack]

<font color="yellow">Come on - you can do beter than that ! </font><br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> I was in a punny frame of mind.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#0000ff"><strong>Just tell the truth and let the chips fall...</strong></font> </div>