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• Pioneer 10 and 11 launched in 1972. Between the two spacecraft, they explored Jupiter and Saturn, and are now on trajectories that will carry them out of our solar system. • Both spacecraft continue to slow down slightly more than expected as they leave the solar system. This unpredicted slowing is called the Pioneer Anomaly. • So far, only a few years of data have been analyzed, from which seven independent teams have confirmed the Pioneer Anomaly. • Thanks to Planetary Society members, a nearly complete data set has been rescued literally from the brink of destruction. These data include not only velocity data used to study how big the anomaly is, but also critical spacecraft engineering data, for example temperature data that will enable studies to determine if temperature variations across the spacecraft could explain the anomaly. • We have recovered more than 30 years data in the case of Pioneer 10, and nearly as much from Pioneer 11. • In assembling these data, scientists encountered a bewildering array of computer languages, recording media, data storage protocols, and even physical deterioration of unique data records. They soon discovered that before they could analyze much of anything, every computer file had to be “conditioned”: cleaned up and converted to a useable form. • The task of conditioning the data is slow and can only be done by the handful of engineers left who still know the old file formats. Only they can recognize missing ancillary data, like DSN tracking station information that is sometimes missing and must be dug out of one-of-a-kind handwritten notebooks. • There is NASA money available for data analysis, but not for this critical conditioning of the data that must take place before analysis can be carried out. |