In the early 1970s, NASA launched Pioneer probes 10 and 11 to conquer deep space in hopes of contacting an alien intelligence. But the expedition that was to last for millions of years will end much earlier … in a very strange way!
In the late 1960s, the project to send space probes was adopted by NASA. The development of the Pioneer project will take more than a decade. Its cost is $ 200 million. In the early 1970s, a jury of scientists and engineers received 150 proposals for scientific experiments from which he selected those that will be embedded on the probes.
In 1972, the Pioneer 10 spacecraft is launched at Cape Canaveral. His journey through the solar system should lead him to leave him in several decades. He will then move to the star Aldebaran that he should reach in 2 million years. And after, the adventure will continue for a long time …
Pioneer 10 is the first space probe to leave the solar system and move towards other stars. (source)
On the hull of the probe are engraved abstract signs and symbols describing the location of the solar system in the Universe. There is also the portrait of a man and a woman.see below
All this forms the message that NASA wanted to launch, on our behalf, through the immensity of space. In search of an answer, of course. A way of saying: “Hi, it’s us, the humans!”
A way to also say the despair where we are, on this lost planet, far away, quite apart from the great trade routes of the galaxy.
This first probe will play a scouting role by making the first crossing of the asteroid belt which extends beyond Mars then it must fly over Jupiter and its moons.
The following year, a second probe named Pioneer 11 is launched towards Saturn. It will then continue its journey from planet to planet until leaving the solar system.
Fifty years ago, Pioneer 10 embarked on a journey that should take it around the star Aldebaran in 2 million years. The total cost of the program is estimated at $350 million. The price of a hypothetical answer.
The astronomical discoveries made by these two probes on the planets and their moons are very numerous, and quite exciting. But that is not the only goal of this ambitious program. It is nothing less than to contact an extraterrestrial intelligence.
You mean extrasolar…
Spirit, are you there? Is there an alien in space? Whoever you are, wherever you are, please speak up! Answer me!
This is the cry that Carl Sagan and his wife Linda wanted to launch at the face of nothingness. Hoping populated. Wishing him loquace…
It is indeed the Sagan couple who conceived “a message intended to communicate information on the origin of the space probe to a hypothetical representative of an alien intelligence encountered on its way.
The message engraved on a plate of Golden aluminum includes representations of a man, a woman, the Solar System (with the approximate trajectory of the probe) and a hydrogen atom. “ (source)
Yes, my friends, the Terrans have launched a bottle at the sea of time. Think about it, millions of years! It is rare for humans to realize plans for the next millennium, but there, hat! They outdid themselves, frankly. Millions of years! It makes me dream.
Let’s take a look at this picture …
Is it this poorly drawn antique-style contraption that is supposed to represent us? Ugh, it doesn’t make me dream at all anymore! It’s not terrible. Stuck, devilishly serious. And the face of humans! They are already outdated in 2026, imagine the time difference when they arrive on Aldebaran’s planet Schmürll in 2 million years! Especially since there is every chance that this planet has disappeared a long time ago… and our descendants with it! Scientists monitored the Pioneer program until the probes left the solar system. The signals were then permanently lost for us.
At least that’s what we thought before the improbable coup de théâtre of February 8, 2036. The Pioneer 10 probe has started to emit 46 years after its departure!
I kindly ask you to set your temporal devices on this date, in exactly 10 years. A very small leap into the future as each of you does dozens every night. The only difference is that you don’t sleep. Fasten your temporal belts, we will land on February 8, 2036, same time, same place. Thank you for traveling with Anytime.
Yes, it is on that day that the news channels of the world gave a very strange statement. A US probe rushes towards the earth. Its beep clearly indicates that it is Pioneer 10, the first US space probe shipped in 1972 for a one-way journey to the star Aldebaran of Taurus. Which raises several unanswered questions.
First, why is this probe coming back to us when it is supposed to be flying out of the solar system, still further towards Taurus’s alpha star? Secondly, why does it come from the strictly opposite direction to that of Aldebaran?
Two mysteries so insoluble that astrophysicists apostrophent in public, carried away by rage before a mystery that surpasses them. They give themselves all the names of birds taken from the dictionary of the green language. An astrophysicist hypothesizes a spherical universe that would end at the borders of the solar system. The probe would have ricocheted on the limit of the universe, which it would have followed while describing a rotation of 180°. This fuzzy theory is hailed by wild beasts.
A computer scientist brings the journey of the probe closer to a feature of video games. Indeed, when the object or character of one of these games arrives at the end of the screen, it immediately reappears at the other end, as if nothing had happened. From there to think that the universe is virtual, there’s only a small step quickly taken! The concert of peeps and monkey cries resounds more beautifully.
Some members of the very respectable Royal Astronomical Society (R.A.S.) even come to blows. During a particularly hectic session, we will go so far as to count 25 injured, including 8 in serious condition. Fortunately, there are no fatalities, apart from that of the chief engineer at NASA, due to the dissemination of information. It’s too much. The unfortunate collapses, struck down by a massive heart attack.
In the end, due to a lack of convincing explanation, the computer bug hypothesis is retained without enthusiasm. Without a response capable of satisfying a majority, the international astrophysical body admits the excuse of a guidance defect, with a kind of shame one might say.
And there is something! Because the truth is even more mind-blowing than all the most wacky hypotheses …
February 2036 – The Pioneer 10 bug set fire and blood to the scientific world. How does the space probe supposed to fly towards the star Aldebaran return towards earth from the diametrically opposite direction?? A riddle that unleashes the amphis. Astrophysicists, mathematicians, statisticians, geneticists, computer scientists, and other icians launch hypotheses and incendiary grenades while public opinion is passionate about the matter. But let’s go back to the origin of the project.
Cape Canaveral, May 1968 – The Pioneer project has just been launched. While engineers and technicians are busy with its realization, astrophysicists are excited like fleas at the idea of contacting – perhaps – extraterrestrial intelligences. In fact, these are not very far…
Intra-lunar observation station, at the same time – Yes, there is an observation station inside the moon. You read that right. The moon, for those who still ignore it, is a hollow artificial satellite. It has access tracks on its hidden side which, as you have inevitably noticed, remains invisible all the time since our satellite turns on itself exactly at the same time as it completes its rotation around the earth. Coincidence too perfect to be due to chance – which as we know does not exist!
The moon was placed there by the gigantic mothership that the Romans called Hyperborea, the Sumerians called Nibiru, the Celts called Sidhe, and which received an infinity of other names according to the people and the times. He is the size of the planet Venus. The maneuvers are delicate, the son of Apollo knows something about it!
The position of Hyperborea was carefully chosen, neither too close to avoid the more or less rapid risk of crashing on the earth, nor too far to avoid escaping the terrestrial attraction and ending up burned by the sun. A whole art. It’s still an impossible feat for the experts from NASA or ESA, but it was child’s play for the gods before.
The interior of the moon contains a vast spaceport and its hub, all the hotel infrastructure to treat the numerous visitors from the stars, as well as a leisure complex worthy of the gods. In addition, it is equipped with an observation and recording station, laser telescopes, microphones and long-range cameras, as well as a host of ultra-sensitive sensors. Nothing that happens here below escapes the moon’s big white eye. Terraformers know everything, so they can anticipate everything.
The first time they came to earth, she was still wild. It was several billion years ago. The terraformers shaped this planet, they populated it with various plants and animals, they developed an intelligent species to monitor their work and if possible extend it. Maybe they should have made us smarter?
We have not lived up to their hopes. Why should we be surprised that they are watching us? And why should we be indignant about it? After all, they are at home. Here below everything belongs to them, even us. They don’t want us to sabotage such an old project, which required so much effort. In short, the gods know everything in real time, it’s natural and it’s well-known.
From the design of the Pioneer program, the gods were aware. And there, for once, they liked the idea. The fact that little humans want to meet other intelligences than their own, frankly, deserves a good point. So, frankly, they are launching a program planned to last for millions of years, that is an ambition that honors them.
As a result, the gods became passionate about this matter. It became a kind of feuilleton for the Selenites. The inhabitants of the moon were once called. They followed all the adventures, commented on all the options, often laughed at human naivete, which is a habit among them, by the way. Some gods like Apollo and Enki even took bets on the success of the program. Not silver bets, no. The gods bet women. And the goddesses? Men, of course.
When the program was definitively set up, when the plate was shown on TV, with the portrait of humans, with elements of chemistry and astronomy, several gods were ecstatic over the pride of their creatures. No but what are they imagining, these little fellows with a brief life? Do they think they are us?
Finally when the gods saw this man and this good woman naked, they rolled on the ground, dead laughing. It was the best of the millennium!
“Already they decide to explore the solar system. It’s courageous after the slap they were given when they wanted to land on the moon. On our moon, damn it! One day they will want to land on Titan, on Cassiopeia, and why not, land on Alcor in the Big Dipper? Well, they are not there yet, but if we count in divine years, it’s for tomorrow! Do you remember when our Olympian ancestors had removed the sage Enoch? This earthling has already come to our native planet, our fathers have brought them there. One day, they will come without our help. They have grown up, these little ones.
“And they have already started! Their tiny ridiculous craft is planned to fly for 2 million terrestrial years. Direction Aldebaran. Just that! They will be happy, the Aldebardeurstel is the name they give themselves! I already imagine their faces in front of the gift:
– What is this shit? And where does it come from? The dirt? Why not my asshole?? Check out the slanted face a bit! The girl’s breasts!! LOL! They are scary, these poor spots!
Do you think that this little game has ended up boring them? You are mistaken. The gods love to play with us. It keeps them busy and then distracts them. They are there to watch us, so that we don’t make irreparable mistakes. Oh, we did! And we will do some more.
The former gods are effective, much more effective than the god alone who replaced them. Unlike him, those before knew how to fix everything. They were even stronger: when it was really dead, they turned back time, and everything returned to before. Convenient. They only needed to press a key.
No, the gods did not get tired of Pioneer 10. They were as curious about the smallest details as the NASA engineers. They knew as much as they did. Even more, the gods see the future, it helps. Apollo-4 said that this probe would be the cause of great effects. Mars-3 took the piss out of himself, on the pretext that his predictions, as always, were so incomplete that they served no purpose. Mars-3 said that Apollo-4 had earned its ability to predict by scratching a Tac-o-tac. Apollo-4 retorted that if Mars-1 had been as poor a warrior as Mars-3, the Earth would have fallen into the hands of the Anunna!
– She already is, isn’t she? wondered Eros-3, the eternal child who does not grow old but still dies in the bloom of his youth. This one, the third of the name, has been living for 700 human years, he still has almost as much before losing his small brown wings and chubby buttocks. Then he will fall like a fly. Most gods live several millennia of our years. But the gods are alive, so they are mortal.
In 2012, in the month of December, the gods launch an idea contest. What lesson are we going to give humans to dissuade them from launching other probes? The best idea will be implemented and the laureate will gain 500 more years of life. It’s always good to take. All the gods put themselves into it. Hera retains the twelve best suggestions. Finally, Mars-3 is the winner. His idea: capture the small Pioneer 10 probe and return to sender. It’s sharp, clear, and precise. But not original enough to win the palm. Also he added that it was necessary to teleport her two million kilometers from the earth, and in the direction diametrically opposite to the one she had followed at the start.
That’s the whole story. We understand better the emotion of humans, who are far from suspecting each other. If they knew!
No, humans cannot know. Surely not. How could they?
In Quebec, the old-time lumberjacks transformed their canoes into magical planes
Nothing exists of all this fabulous mess, nothing at all, zero, not a single atom.
When the wolf Fenrir shook the world's axis Yggdrasil, the cosmic order ended
All over the world there are strangely shaped rocks that evoke animals. Natural or not?
Persia, 3rd century -- Mani thinks he is a prophet and invents Manicheism.