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Star Stuff: An Exploratory Case Study of the Cosmos Television Franchise

Pioneer 10 & 11

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The Pioneer F spacecraft, destined to be the first man made object to escape from the solar system into interstellar space, carries this pictorial plaque. It is designed to show scientifically educated inhabitants of some other star system, who might intercept it millions of years from now, when Pioneer was launched, from where, and by what kind of beings. (With the hope that they would not invade Earth.) The design is etched into a 6 inch by 9 inch gold-anodized aluminum plate, attached to the spacecraft's attenna support struts in a position to help shield it from erosion by interstellar dust. The radiating lines at left represents the positions of 14 pulsars, a cosmic source of radio energy, arranged to indicate our sun as the home star of our civilization. The "1-" symbols at the ends of the lines are binary numbers that represent the frequencies of these pulsars at the time of launch of Pioneer F relative of that to the hydrogen atom shown at the upper left with a "1" unity symbol. The hydrogen atom is thus used as a "universal clock," and the regular decrease in the frequencies of the pulsars will enable another civilization to determine the time that has elapsed since Pioneer F was launched. The hydrogen is also used as a "universal yardstick" for sizing the human figures and outline of the spacecraft shown on the right. The hydrogen wavelength, about 8 inches, multiplied by the binary number representing "8" shown next to the woman gives her height, 64 inches. The figures represent the type of creature that created Pioneer. The man's hand is raised in a gesture of good will. Across the bottom are the planets, ranging outward from the Sun, with the spacecraft trajectory arching away from Earth, passing Mars, and swinging by Jupiter.
The Pioneer F spacecraft, destined to be the first man made object to escape from the solar system into interstellar space, carries this pictorial plaque. It is designed to show scientifically educated inhabitants of some other star system, who might intercept it millions of years from now, when Pioneer was launched, from where, and by what kind of beings. (Hopefully, any aliens reading the plaque will not use this knowledge to immediately invade Earth.) The design is etched into a 6 inch by 9 inch gold-anodized aluminum plate, attached to the spacecraft's attenna support struts in a position to help shield it from erosion by interstellar dust. The radiating lines at left represents the positions of 14 pulsars, a cosmic source of radio energy, arranged to indicate our sun as the home star of our civilization. The "1-" symbols at the ends of the lines are binary numbers that represent the frequencies of these pulsars at the time of launch of Pioneer F relative of that to the hydrogen atom shown at the upper left with a "1" unity symbol. The hydrogen atom is thus used as a "universal clock," and the regular decrease in the frequencies of the pulsars will enable another civilization to determine the time that has elapsed since Pioneer F was launched. The hydrogen is also used as a "universal yardstick" for sizing the human figures and outline of the spacecraft shown on the right. The hydrogen wavelength, about 8 inches, multiplied by the binary number representing "8" shown next to the woman gives her height, 64 inches. The figures represent the type of creature that created Pioneer. The man's hand is raised in a gesture of good will. Across the bottom are the planets, ranging outward from the Sun, with the spacecraft trajectory arching away from Earth, passing Mars, and swinging by Jupiter.
This official circa 1973 NASA color film tells the story of Pioneer 10 — the first spacecraft to travel beyond Mars to the outer planets of our solar system. Launched in March 1972, the spacecraft took a 21-month, 620-million-mile journey to Jupiter, during which Pioneer penetrated the previously unexplored asteroid belt without mishap, eliminating the long held fear that high-speed particles or huge asteroids might destroy the spacecraft. This film tells of the findings recorded by the scientific instruments and cameras onboard. We see its unmistakeable great red spot (mark 01:30 ) and various animations before seeing Gerard Kuiper, considered by many to be the father of modern planetary science, who shares a number of his photographs. The actual launch of the spacecraft is shown at mark 09:33 , followed by several animations of Pioneer 10 mixed with scenes from mission control. Grainy images — gathered from scans taken by the spacecraft — are shown on a monitor at mark 14:22 . The narrator speculates whether some form for life exists beneath the planet’s thick clouds, with astronomer Carl Sagan detailing the possible reasons why beginning at mark 15:22 . At mark 16:05 we see the familiar “picture postcard of what nude human female an male bodies look like as well as Earth’s location in the galaxy. For the first time ever, we see “crescent” images of Jupiter (mark 22:20 ). Even more animations follow as the narrator explains how more mysteries are waiting to be unlocked. After leaving the Jovian system and wandering endlessly through the Milky Way galaxy, carrying a message for possible extraterrestrial beings, radio communications were lost with Pioneer 10 in 2003. We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: "01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference." This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com