TRAVELING TO IMMORTALITY |
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| Don Savage Headquarters, Washington, DC September 29, 1995 (Phone: 202/358-1547) Ann Hutchison Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA (Phone: 415/604-4968) RELEASE: 95-163 PIONEER 11 TO END OPERATIONS AFTER EPIC CAREER After nearly 22 years of exploration out to the farthest reaches of the Solar System, one of the most durable and productive space missions in history will come to a close. Now beyond the orbit of Pluto and more than four billion miles from Earth, NASA's unmanned Pioneer 11 spacecraft is heading out into interstellar space. Because the spacecraft's power is too low to operate its instruments and transmit data, on September 30 NASA will cease daily communications with the spacecraft. At that distance, faint signals from Pioneer 11 traveling at the speed of light take over six hours to reach Earth. The spacecraft will continue speeding out into interstellar space toward the center of the Milky Way, taking an engraved gold plaque bearing a message about Earth to other civilizations which it may encounter. Pioneer 11 will pass near the star Lambda Aquila in almost four million years. (1) (1) http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/text/pioneer-11_endops.txt
 1996 AD It was late summer, and their telescope was pointed high to the south. "Do you see that bright star, Tina? That's Altair. It's over twice the mass of our sun and fifty times as bright. It's the brightest star in the constellation Aquila. Aquila is Latin for 'the eagle'." Tina readjusted her head several times to get a clear view. After settling into position she said, "Yeah, I see the star, but I don't see any eagle around it though." Dad chuckled. "I know it can be hard to visualize that constellation. Imagine Altair is at the head or neck of the bird, and the star Lambda Aquila is at the tail, although our telescope can't really make that smaller star out well.  The star Lambda Aquila in the constellation Aquila. "Sky observers for thousands of years have envisioned that constellation in different forms. In Indian tradition, Altair and the two stars at its sides are revered as the footprints of the god Vishnu. The ancient Romans pictured Aquila as a flying vulture, while the ancient Greeks who preceded them were the ones who imagined it as an eagle. "The ancient Greeks believed Aquila was the bird of the god Zeus, which carried a mortal from earth to the heavens where his soul became transformed and he became immortal." "What does immortal mean, Dad?" "It means 'to live forever'." "So why are we looking at Aquila, Dad?" "Well, honey, we have a space ship headed that way." "Really? Wow! You mean it? But why would anyone want to go to that constellation?" "Well, you see, in 1973, before you were born, we launched a spacecraft named Pioneer 11. It was the first mission to explore Saturn. It has special instruments on board to study Saturn, and also Jupiter which it passed on its way there. It reached Saturn 6 years later and sent back amazing pictures of Saturn's rings.  "There's a gold plaque on board to tell anyone it meets where it came from and about who we are. It has images of a man and woman, a diagram of our solar system and a picture showing the sun relative to other nearby stars. The man has his hand raised in greeting.""But what does that have to do with Aquila?" "Well, after Pioneer 11 passed by Saturn, it was sent on a course into outer space. It will just keep traveling farther and farther away from Earth. Someday it will leave our solar system, and in about 4 million years it will pass by Lambda Aquila."
4,001,973 AD The ghost ship drifted on. Its equipment forever silent. Century upon century, millennium upon millennium, millions of years in perpetual darkness. Its body sporadically pelted by interstellar dust produced by star death. Voyaging towards a faraway beacon in the heavens. The human race was long gone. Any discernable traces of them on the planet Earth were long gone too. The solar rays of Lambda Aquila now touched upon something new entering its system. Emerging from the unremitting blackness, faint light began to illuminate an indiscernible form. It was the shredded remnants of an ancient spacecraft. It was Pioneer 11. Pock marked, battered and reshaped into something new. Its body now transformed. Its spirit still intact. It entered Lambda's solar system with its eternal message of "We are here."
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