Good evening,

One week outside the fence. :-)
In the Navy you had count down calendars for when you would rotate to a new assignment.
Maybe I should start a count up calendar of weeks that are 7 day weekends outside the NASA Ames fence. :-)

Now outside, looking in, I see that I was not aggressive enough in copying Pioneer 10 and 11 Master Data Record (MDR) files from Magneto Optical disks to DVDs that could be read on an ordinary PC.

I have 5 DVDs that is the Pioneer 10 mission, beginning to end, less 9 days around the Jupiter Encounter which seem to be missing.

For Pioneer 11, I only have 3 DVDs of MDR files for 1973, 74, & 75. The rest of the Pioneer 11 MDRs remain out of reach on 128 meg Magneto Optical disks, in neat plastic shoe boxes, under a table next to an old digital corporation Micro VAX, with 3M post-its saying "Save for Ames History".

I have failed to get permission to use this data, which by the way, was supposed to have been degaussed back in the year 2000. (no one wanted raw data after the experimenters had processed their data.)

I posted an e-mail to some folks at Ames requesting permission to return as a volunteer and hopefully someone will pick up a quill pen and affix a signature.
Part of that e-mail I have copied for your consideration as well. - LRK -

During the missions I had often thought that it would be nice to have a computer simulation of the Pioneer spacecraft that allowed you to see what was going on at any time. Back then programming the early PC DOS, 4 color, program video memory yourself, was not the easiest to do, and my span of attention was too short to make it so.

Now you can load all of the Pioneer 10 and 11 MDRs in a laptop and have a database that would allow you to re-fly the mission and see what was going on, at least for the health of the spacecraft. (not sure I have the knowledge on how to re-play the instrument data, but it is there.)

You just would need the free use of the data, the use of the old publications that describe how the data is formatted, the old publications on what the instrument data looked like, the coefficient files for polynomials that would covert 3 and 6 bit telemetry words to some meaningful analog value, and many lines of code to make it come to life. (took me a year and ten months of playing with National Instruments LabVIEW programming language to make it happen on a Mac Quadra 950, which I have now turned in.)

I don't know how many folks would care to look at a web site that could take you back in time for a tour of space with the Pioneers but it seemed like something worth considering, since Pioneer 10 was the first man made object to leave our Solar System.

For me at least, a memory of an 11 inch, black and white monitor, with little black and white squares filling up the screen as data from Pioneer 10 came in as it was leaving, is still clear. I can hear the sounds of Pioneer, generated by ones and zeros, played by a Vic 20 using a BASIC program to make different tones for the data that had been captured on small set of TTL chips. That 1/8 of a second burst of data from the Deep Space Network, that was 1200 bits, that had come in over a 9600 bits/sec modem and toggled out over the 12 seconds it took to collect that 192 bit frame of data. TV cameras focused on the little monitor, and audio connections kludged into the Vector board that held the chips. That was the third day on the job with Bendix Field Engineering back in July of 1983.

Whether all that could come to life again remains to be seen.

Viktor Toth in Canada has written a "C" program to at least read the 6 bit sub-com engineering and science data and display it on a web page. He got the same values as I did on my Mac Quadra. ( I am waiting for a knock on the door since I sent some of those MDRs to a foreign national and we have all this 9/11 paranoia)

I am hoping I get permission to copy the rest before the Micro VAX ends up in surplus. Would be nice if I was told I could send a whole set of MDR data to whomever. (with maybe some of those necessary pages for understanding 3 bit words - some old computers only knew OCTAL.)

The story of the Pioneer mission is in print and I have already passed links before so probably nothing new here.

Let me do so again though, while you consider what it might be like to go for a ride to outer space with me through the eyes of Pioneer 10 and 11.

Thanks for looking up with me. - LRK -

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The following taken from PIONEER ODYSSEY

THE FIRST PUBLIC discussion of the experiments for the Jupiter mission was announced in a press release addressed to Bay Area Editors: On Thursday, May 7 [1970], the 13 experimenters participating in the first mission to Jupiter will be at NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, for a project coordination meeting. The Pioneer F and G scientific spacecraft now are scheduled for launch to the vicinity of Jupiter in 1972 and 1973. At 11:30 a.m. we will present a review and question and answer session for news media on the mission and experiments.
snip

Figure 5-16. Pioneer 10 and 11 heliocentric trajectories. The time ticks shown along the trajectories and planetary orbits represent the distance traveled during each year.
snip

Figure 6-1. Fast streams of solar wind catch up with slow streams and produce scattering regions that prevent low energy cosmic rays from penetrating into the Solar System. The average velocity of the solar wind changes imperceptibly to the orbit of Jupiter but, as shown in the lower diagram, the range of fluctuations is remarkably diminished at this distance. Pioneer 10 and 11 might reach the boundary where this scattering effect ends and galactic cosmic rays would be expected to increase in intensity. To eight times Earth's distance from the Sun there is no sign of approaching such a boundary.

Meanwhile, Pioneer 11 had been following Pioneer 10 for a rendezvous with Jupiter. Severe thunderstorms at the Florida launch site had delayed preparations with a spell of bad weather. But crews at the site made up for the pre-launch delays and had the spacecraft ready for the launch window. The lift-off took place as scheduled at 6:11 p.m. PST on 5 April 1973. The spacecraft separated from the launch vehicle at 6:26 p.m., but as the RTG booms were deployed to slow the spin of the spacecraft and place the radioactive material as far as possible from the body of the spacecraft, trouble arose. One of the booms failed to extend to its full extent. The spacecraft continued to spin at too fast a rate.
snip

--- Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs), 44

Thermal Control
Temperature on the spacecraft is controlled at between 23° C and 38° C ( 10° and 100° F) inside the scientific instrument compartment, and at various other levels elsewhere for satisfactory operation of the onboard equipment.

The temperature control system coped with gradually decreasing heating as the spacecraft moved away from the Sun, and with two frigid periods one when Pioneer 10 passed through Earth's shadow at launch; the other at the time of passage through Jupiter's shadow during flyby. The system also controlled the effects of heat from the third-stage engine, atmosphere friction, spacecraft nuclear electric power generators, and other equipment.

The equipment compartments are insulated by multi-layered blankets of aluminized plastic. Temperature-responsive louvers at the bottom of the equipment compartment, opened by bi-metallic springs, allow controlled escape of excess heat. Other equipment has individual thermal insulation and is warmed by electric heaters and 12 one-watt radioisotope heaters, fueled with plutonium-238.

Electrical Power

Nuclear-fueled electric power for Pioneer Jupiter comes from the four SNAP-l9 type Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs), developed by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), similar to those used to power the Nimbus-3 meteorological satellite. These units turn heat from plutonium-238 into electricity (Figure 3-4).

The RTGs (Figure 3-5) are on the opposite side of the spacecraft from the scientific instrument compartment to reduce the effects of their neutron radiation on the instruments. Mounted two each on the end of each boom, these four RTGs developed about 155 watts of electrical power at launch, which decayed to approximately 140 watts by the time the spacecraft reached Jupiter. One hundred watts output is expected five years after launch. The depletion of power is not from the nuclear source itself but from deterioration of the junctions of the thermocouples which convert heat into electricity. The RTGs supply adequate power for the mission since the spacecraft needs only 100 watts to operate all systems, of which 26 watts are for the science instruments. Excess power from....
snip

The radiation from the RTGs could "dirty" the spacecraft with neutrons and subatomic particles. Representatives of the Atomic Energy Commission explained how elimination of impurities from the radioactive fuel elements could reduce the radiation hazard from the RTGs and how this was being planned.
snip
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Thanks for continuing to look up with me.
If you know of others that would like to look up too,
let them know they are most welcome to join the lunar-update list. - LRK -

http://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update

Larry Kellogg
larry.kellogg at sbcglobal.net
http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/

PS: I am not the only one interested in old Pioneer 10-11 data - LRK -

The Unfinished Quest to Solve the Pioneer Anomaly

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Larry Kellogg here, now from outside the fence.
(Last day at Ames was 6/10/2005)
http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/

I would like the current Internet population to have a better
understanding of the Pioneer Missions and in particular, Pioneer 10, the
first man made object to leave the Solar System.
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-349/sp349.htm

I would like them to be able to re-fly some of these missions and see
what was happening along the way. We would be able to discuss the
instruments, health of the spacecraft and what was accomplished.

The experimenter records are already on the Internet, as is the
ephemeris data.
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/pioneer10-11.html
http://lewes.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/cohoweb/selector1.pl?spacecraft=p10
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eph

What is not there is an interactive way to see what was happening along
the mission time line.

To accomplish this avocation, it looks like I will now need a sponsor
for the Ames Associate Program.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
http://huminfo.arc.nasa.gov/associate.html
The Ames Associate Program is a voluntary/unpaid program designed for
individuals who wish to donate their services to NASA-Ames Research Center for the
mutual benefit of Ames and themselves. Ames Associates perform services for Ames without
any compensation, (directly or indirectly). This program also permits the Associate to
utilize unique Ames facilities and work in their chosen field with experienced and eminent
research scientists. Ames Associates are normally United States Citizens or Permanent Residents
(registered immigrant aliens), although Foreign Nationals may donate services if proper
external approvals are obtained.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For Pioneer 10 and 11, I believe an interactive web site can be done
utilizing the Master Data Record files that are presently archived on
Magneto Optical Disks that are readable by an RWZ21 Magneto Optical SCSI
disk drive attached to a digital corporation Micro VAX that is still in
N244, room 105A.

I would need permission to copy the files and access to the Micro VAX.
This needs to be done before the Micro VAX is sent to surplus as no one
is using it.

PN 10: 155 disks x 128 MB < 19,840 MB (19.8 GB)

PN 11: 217 disks x 128 MB < 27,776 MB (27.7 GB)

These records need to be copied to DVDs that can be utilized on todays
PCs and would provide the raw data for a web site presentation. The
raw, 3 bit binary data would need to be converted to readable form by
the proper use of mathematical polynomials and coefficient files similar
to what I used in reading the telemetry data during the real time mission.

I would need permission to make copies of the old Bendix Pioneer
Publications that are in the High Bay of N244 and the use of the
coefficient files that were on the Mac Quadra 950 used in Pioneer Ops.
Before leaving Ames I saved some of this data but was not able to
complete the work.

snip

Having supported NASA Ames since 1983 during the Pioneer Missions and
Lunar Prospector Mission, I feel qualified to talk to the Internet
audience. The information and experience gained in re-writing the
Pioneer 10 down link telemetry display program to display the health of
the spacecraft and capture the raw data to make Master Data Records
would be used to help create the on-line experience.
http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/PIONEER/PNStat.html

Interactive web pages could fill screens similar to what was done for
the real time data as seen here for the last communications with Pioneer 10
http://www.vttoth.com/Pioneer/ScreenShots.htm

Much can be said about the Pioneer Missions and others have done so.
http://www.tsgc.utexas.edu/archive/characterizations/pioneer10.html

I would like to contribute what I can with the help of some of those
that are on the lunar-update list.
(a 1000+ who participate in my discussions about going to the Moon,
Mars, and Beyond)

snip

https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
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