Mankind -- it's not ALL bad!

Flying by Jupiter

Right around this day in 1983 the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, enroute to the star system Aldebaran, said goodbye to the Solar System. If all goes well, the tiny spacecraft should reach its goal in about two million years. To make this event even more exciting, in 1997 astronomers think they discovered a planet orbiting Aldebaran. How exciting is that?

Pioneer 10 (Pioneer-F) was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt and to make direct observations of Jupiter. It was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 36A on March 2, 1972. Pioneer 10 is heading in the direction of Aldebaran, located in Taurus (constellation). By some definitions, Pioneer 10 has become the first artificial object to leave the solar system (third cosmic velocity). However, it still has not passed the heliopause or Oort cloud.

Its objectives were to study the interplanetary and planetary magnetic fields; solar wind parameters; cosmic rays; transition region of the heliosphere; neutral hydrogen abundance; distribution, size, mass, flux, and velocity of dust particles; Jovian aurorae; Jovian radio waves; atmosphere of Jupiter and some of its satellites, particularly Io; and to photograph Jupiter and its satellites. Construction
Pioneer probe designApproved in 1969, Pioneer 10 and its sister ship Pioneer 11 were designed to live up to their names: as first-time explorers intended to both gather data and report on conditions in the asteroid belt and in Jupiter-space; how they fared would be critical in the planning and technology of any future missions.

Pioneer 10 was managed as part of a Pioneer program out of NASA Ames Research Center and was built by TRW. It was light, at only 260 kg--30 and 27 kg of which were instruments and fuel, respectively. Like the Voyagers, it was powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators (SNAP-19s) containing plutonium-238, which provided 155W at launch, and 140W by the Jupiter flyby. The RTGs were mounted well away from the body, to prevent their radiation from interfering with the spacecraft's instruments.

Pioneer 10 was fitted with a plaque to serve as a message for extraterrestrial life, in the event of its discovery.

Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to encounter Jupiter in December, 1973. The spacecraft then made valuable scientific investigations in the outer regions of our solar system until the end of its mission on March 31, 1997. Further contactThe Pioneer 10's weak signal continued to be tracked by the Deep Space Network as part of a new advanced concept study of chaos theory. After 1997 the probe was used in the training of flight controllers on how to acquire radio signals from space.

The last successful reception of telemetry was on April 27, 2002; subsequent signals were barely strong enough to detect. Loss of contact was probably due to a combination of increasing distance and the spacecraft's steadily weakening power source, rather than structural failure of the craft.

The last, very weak signal from Pioneer 10 was received on January 23, 2003, when it was 7.5 billion miles (12 billion kilometres) from Earth.

A contact attempt on February 7, 2003 was not successful.

One final attempt was made on the evening of March 4, 2006, the last time the antenna would be correctly aligned with Earth. No response was received from Pioneer.

Pioneer 10 is heading in the direction of the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus at roughly 2.6 AUs per year. If Aldebaran had zero relative velocity, it would take Pioneer about 2 million years to reach it.

It's how we work -- first f**k it up, then try to fix it!

Shine on me

Jun 4th 2009
From The Economist print edition


Chrome plating has long been used to show off everything from Harley-Davidson motorcycles to kitchen taps. This is not just because it can be buffed into a shine that you can see your face in. Chrome plating has been cheap to do, it ends up harder than steel and it is extremely durable because it resists corrosion. But working with the stuff can be an environmental nightmare. Now, though, researchers may have found a safer alternative.


Metal objects are coated with chrome in an electroplating process that involves running a current through a liquid bath of chemicals that contain chromium ions. These get deposited on the surface of the material in a thin layer. However, the chemicals are hazardous to health and the waste materials generated can poison groundwater if not disposed of carefully. When chrome plating came into widespread use in the 1940s these dangers were not well understood. Modern environmental and health regulations have significantly increased the costs of a chrome-plating factory. Industries that use a lot of chrome have tried to find alternatives, but have so far discovered nothing that looks as good or is as tough.

Christopher Schuh and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology set out to find an alternative by identifying the properties that make chrome so strong. Metals are composed of crystals that have their atoms lined up in neat rows. In most metals these rows can readily slip past one another, a characteristic that will lower the overall strength of the material. Dr Schuh�s team found that chrome benefits from a crystalline structure that is exceptionally small and this prevents its atomic rows from slipping.

For this reason they decided to work with nanocrystalline nickel, another material formed from minute atomic rows. They ran several trials plating objects with it. Although their nanocrystalline nickel was very tough at first, it lost its hardness when left at room temperature over a matter of months and so ended up as a poor substitute for chrome. To improve its properties they tried mixing it with a combination of metals.

To predict which metals would form the nanocrystalline structures that they were searching for, Dr Schuh and his colleagues used computer models that put atoms from different metals together. Because this was done at such a small scale, the way the atoms interact can produce new and different properties according to the rules of quantum physics. They found that when tungsten was added to the nickel it produced a suitable structure. The bonus was that the mixture was capable of being plated and in a way that was more environmentally friendly.

Initial tests showed that when materials were coated in the nickel-tungsten alloy, using a modified electroplating technique that keeps its crystals particularly small, the plating remained stable indefinitely at room temperature. Nor did it easily degrade when exposed to great heat. The nickel-tungsten alloy can be extremely bright and shiny, and even made to become harder than chrome. All in all, its characteristics and absence of environmental hazards make it the most appealing replacement yet found for chrome. The researchers intend to report as much to a forthcoming conference of the National Association for Surface Finishing in Louisville, Kentucky.

Proof, though, will come with use. Testing is already under way, with the nanocrystalline nickel-tungsten alloy being tried out as a plating on the bumpers of a fleet of trucks. It could soon find its way onto kitchen taps and other shiny fixtures. And if it can get to ride on a Harley, then its future will be assured.