[OT] Goodbye Pioneer 10

[Storminator]

I read a really cool novel (can't recall the title) by A.E. van Vogt where our heroes pile into a space ship and get cryogenically frozen for their 2,000,000-year-long trip to Alpha Centauri, and when they get there humans have already colonized it and have no idea who these clowns are. Very amusing.

Quest for the Future.

Of all the time travel stories I ever read, this one was easily the coolest.

And they knew who colonists were...the radio still worked and kept sending out status reports. There was a big parade and the colonists were all bajillionaires, due to the magic of compound interest.

PS

 

[barsoomcore]

Quest for the Future.

THANKS! Wow, that's been sitting in my head since I was fourteen. Which, for those of you who haven't been keeping count, is twenty-one years.

And they knew who colonists were...the radio still worked and kept sending out status reports. There was a big parade and the colonists were all bajillionaires, due to the magic of compound interest. [/B]

And weren't people wearing, like weird perfume or something? I remember the perfume.

...

not sure what THAT means, but o well. Thanks again.

 

[Drawmack]

There was a Star Trek TNG episode where they revived some of the people who were cryogenically frozen because their space capsule was falling apart. Talk about culture shock.

 

[Storminator]

THANKS! Wow, that's been sitting in my head since I was fourteen. Which, for those of you who haven't been keeping count, is twenty-one years.
And weren't people wearing, like weird perfume or something? I remember the perfume.

...

not sure what THAT means, but o well. Thanks again.

There was this thing where time travel made you stink, and so all the colonists smelled weird and used perfume to (almost) cover it up.

PS

 

[Buttercup]

My father died when I was very young, and my mother remarried when I was in high school. This man had worked on the Pioneer project, and had a replica of the plaque it carries on the wall in his living room. He probably had lots of interesting stories to tell, but he was so much of a jerk that I never spent any time trying to find out. Ah well, an opportunity lost.

 

[Kilmore]

I read a really cool novel (can't recall the title) by A.E. van Vogt where our heroes pile into a space ship and get cryogenically frozen for their 2,000,000-year-long trip to Alpha Centauri, and when they get there humans have already colonized it and have no idea who these clowns are. Very amusing.

I've had that idea for a space game. BTW, bet Kirk wishes he hadn't defrosted Khan.

Now that I think of it, Star Trek dealt with encountering early space probes too. ST ( The Motion Picture).

 

[wighair]

Some nice bits from a BBC story of the same...

~~~~~~~~~
Mankind's first emissary into space carries on its side a gold plaque that describes the creatures that built it, where we are and the date when the mission began.

Like a ghost ship, Pioneer 10 will continue to coast silently through space, heading for the red star Aldebaran.

It will take Pioneer 10 more than 2 million years to reach it. Its sister ship, Pioneer 11, ended its mission in September 1995, when the last transmission from the spacecraft was received.

Both Pioneer spacecraft and Voyagers 1 and 2 could outlast the Earth.

Long after our Sun has swollen into a red giant and destroyed our planet, these four spacecraft will still be drifting silently amongst the stars, almost forever.
~~~~~~~~~

The worry for me is its destination: Aldebaran

Cos every keeper worth his salt knows Hastur, the Unspeakable (Great Old One) is imprisoned in space, near the star Aldebaran.

 

[Zander]

Like a ghost ship, Pioneer 10 will continue to coast silently through space, heading for the red star Aldebaran.

It will take Pioneer 10 more than 2 million years to reach it.

By the time it gets there, we will no longer look like the image of us that went with Pioneer 10. So the Alderbarans might be disappointed if they come and visit.

Even if we haven't changed much, they'll be disappointed. I suspect that the image was the one by Leonardo da Vinci which makes it look like we have four arms and four legs. When the Alderbarans get here, they'll want to talk to the four-armed and four-legged creatures who sent the craft, not the dumb two-armed and two-legged ones!

 

[Welverin]

By the time it gets there, we will no longer look like the image of us that went with Pioneer 10. So the Alderbarans might be disappointed if they come and visit.

What makes you think we'll be around at all?

 

[Mark]

What makes you think we'll be around at all?

We're a tenacious and adaptable breed. We are the (ockroach equivalent of the mammalian world...