Apr 11 1978
From The Space Library
NASA announced that the solar-wind detector aboard Saturn bound Pioneer 11 had begun operating again, after lying dormant for 3yr despite scientists' repeated efforts to revive it. The solar-wind detector would apparently be ready for the 1979 encounter with Saturn for closeup pictures and other first-time measurements. Experimenters who completed an exhaustive checkout of the instrument were confident it was working properly. The solar-plasma analyzer, designed to map the flow of the million-mph wind continuously flowing out of the: sun across the solar system, should provide important information about the interaction of solar-wind particles with Saturn and its rings. Investigators would compare these data with data gathered by the instrument 3yr ago when Pioneer 11 swung around Jupiter.
The instrument had ceased operation shortly after the Jupiter encounter; in October 1977, after exhaustive analyses and a number of commands to the instrument (none of which worked), investigators decided to turn on the instrument's high-voltage power source to "thermally shock" the output circuits into operation. This had apparently worked, as 36days later NASA tracking stations reported the first transmission of data in nearly 3yr. Since then the instrument had responded to all radio commands, and appeared to be in condition for the Saturn encounter. (NASA Release 78-58)
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