SOMETIMES BEING A PIONEER. CAN BE FAR OUT MAN....
This weekend marked the anniversary. Of the launch of Pioneer 10. This is a space probe/satellite and between Pioneer 10 and 11 there are some remarkable things we have learned about Jupiter and Saturn. Not only that we are sending these two probes “far out” so to speak. P-10 gave us our first “up-close” look at Jupiter and then kept right on going.... It is one of five earth-made objects to leave our solar system and If it stays on target it will reach/crash into a star named Aldebaran ...but not right away like in 2 million years. So why does this thing take so long to get there? Is it traveling slowly? It barely creeps along ahaving a maximum speed of a mere 82,020 miles per hour. To give this a little further perspective ... this would be going back and forth across the United States 240 times in one day if you didn’t have to stop for a bathroom break or to buy that fuzzy dice key chain stop the mega-truck stop on I-80 near Wilton, Iowa.
Now Pioneer 11 (P-11).also took a look at Jupiter and then did a slingshot move and rocketed over to Saturn. It achieved similar speeds and left the solar system. Now we. Aren’t quite certain where this eventually encounter another stellar body. There’s a star in Sagittarius that might connect some 4 million years from now.
If humans could send these things out to get pictures of planets 50 years ago, why are we so shocked that our friend got a picture of us holding one too many beers at that party last week. And they were only 8 feet away? Oh and why are we amazed that Google Earth. Can give us a photo of our roof from space? Now another fascinating fact about these two probes is that they completed their missions quite sometime ago and yet they kept sending data (doing what matched their intended. Purpose) for quite some time past the time NASA expected. Each has now finished sending data, however. They carry messages for distant solar systems just in case they meet some interesting E.T. Out there.
What’s the “seeking Peace and Joy” connection?
First these are experiments to learn new things. Next they had an initial purpose, yet once they checked it out they found there was so much more in the universe that they could observe and draw meaning from. Oh and they are still moving out there to deliver a message and they have moved far beyond wwhat was expected. It’s that way with seeking peace and joy and passing along information.... you may find what what you were looking for and then want more and the universe will often provide you an endless supply of knowledge or at least a couple million years worth. In seeking peace and joy, you provide or walk along someone to support. Someone with knowledge and in the future you carry a message further. And further and though you aren’t quite sure of the ultimate outcome some amazing things can happen along the way.
Okay ... it’s time for me to go where a few people have gone before... to cook dinner...so..I need to blast off. The next few entries will be multimedia commentaries about tech as a blesssing and a curse and what post-corona notions. Might matter in the peace and joy world....
Until then let’s aim for the first star to the right and engage.
This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.
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