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After 37 years, Voyager 1 has fired up its trajectory thrusters
December 01, 2017, 07:16 PM
Sig2340After 37 years, Voyager 1 has fired up its trajectory thrusters
Good work, Aerojet Rocketdyne. Good work indeed.
quote:
This week, the scientists and engineers on the Voyager team did something very special. At present, the
Voyager 1 spacecraft is 21 billion kilometers from Earth, or about 141 times the distance between the Earth and Sun. It has, in fact, moved beyond our Solar System into interstellar space. However, we can still communicate with Voyager across that distance.
This week, the scientists and engineers on the Voyager team did something very special. They commanded the spacecraft to fire a set of four trajectory thrusters for the first time in 37 years to determine their ability to orient the spacecraft using 10-millisecond pulses.
[OP NOTE: Voyager 1 was launched September 5, 1977] After sending the commands on Tuesday, it took 19 hours and 35 minutes for the signal to reach Voyager. Then, the Earth-bound spacecraft team had to wait another 19 hours and 35 minutes to see if the spacecraft responded. It did. After nearly four decades of dormancy, the Aerojet Rocketdyne manufactured thrusters fired perfectly.
"The Voyager team got more excited each time with each milestone in the thruster test. The mood was one of relief, joy, and incredulity after witnessing these well-rested thrusters pick up the baton as if no time had passed at all," said Todd Barber, a propulsion engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
In recent decades, Voyager had been relying on its primary thrusters to keep the spacecraft properly oriented so that it can maintain a communications link with Earth. But these attitude control thrusters have been degrading over time, requiring more and more energy each time they've been used.
By switching to the spacecraft's "trajectory correction maneuver" thrusters, last used during the spacecraft's encounter with Saturn in 1980, engineers say they will be able to extend the lifetime of Voyager by two or three more years before its waning power reserves expire.
Designed with these:
Nice is overrated
"It's every freedom-loving individual's duty to lie to the government."
Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018
December 01, 2017, 07:19 PM
mbinkyAmazing. And awesome. Wow. Thanks for sharing.
December 01, 2017, 07:24 PM
XLTI wish they would send up another one and see what happens.
December 01, 2017, 07:52 PM
Lord Vaalicquote:
Originally posted by XLT:
I wish they would send up another one and see what happens.
They would fuck it all up, they couldnt help themselves but to "tweak" it and by the time the committee and bureaucracy were done it wouldnt even resemble the original
Don't weep for the stupid, or you will be crying all day December 01, 2017, 07:59 PM
RHINOWSOFuck NASA will spend 100 years getting ready for a Mars mission that will never happen.
December 01, 2017, 08:43 PM
PatriotVEEGER will come back to haunt us when it’s found by another space race, “fixed”, and sent back to earth.
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December 01, 2017, 09:20 PM
sjtillquote:
ILIA: V'Ger and the Creator will become one.
SPOCK: And who is the Creator?
ILIA: The Creator is that which created V'Ger.
KIRK: Who is V'Ger?
ILIA: V'Ger is that which seeks the Creator.
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December 01, 2017, 09:22 PM
RHINOWSO
December 01, 2017, 10:22 PM
marksman41What I find most amazing is that Voyager hasn't been destroyed by something yet. Meteor, space debris, etc. - keep on truckin' V'Ger!
December 01, 2017, 10:39 PM
Pipe SmokerGood show, Voyager! You're awesome, and we're proud of you.
Serious about crackers. December 01, 2017, 11:04 PM
sigmonkeyquote:
Originally posted by Sig2340:...
Designed with these:...
Powered by these old wet cell storage devices.
Big thumbs up to those folks.
"the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" ✡ Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא שוב! December 01, 2017, 11:04 PM
Rey HRHI get the feeling that as in everything else, Voyager will be an example for "they don't make them like they used to anymore."
"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
December 01, 2017, 11:24 PM
bubbatimequote:
Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
Fuck NASA will spend 100 years getting ready for a Mars mission that will never happen.
Space X plans to fly two people around the moon and back to earth in as little as five years, by 2022. Maybe.
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December 02, 2017, 12:12 AM
armoredquote:
Originally posted by sigmonkey:
quote:
Originally posted by Sig2340:...
Designed with these:...
Powered by these old wet cell storage devices.
Big thumbs up to those folks.
BIG +1
December 02, 2017, 12:48 AM
airsoft guyquote:
Originally posted by marksman41:
What I find most amazing is that Voyager hasn't been destroyed by something yet. Meteor, space debris, etc. - keep on truckin' V'Ger!
Space is rather, uh, spacious. Not a whole lot to bonk into out there.
quote:
Originally posted by Will938:
If you don't become a screen writer for comedy movies, then you're an asshole.
December 02, 2017, 04:14 AM
tacfoleyquote:
Originally posted by marksman41:
What I find most amazing is that Voyager hasn't been destroyed by something yet. Meteor, space debris, etc. - keep on truckin' V'Ger!
Space is pretty much, space.
tac
December 02, 2017, 06:09 AM
msfzoeVividly remember carrying/using a Keuffel & Esser slipstick in a leather belt holster.
Boy, am I old.
December 02, 2017, 07:35 AM
SportshooterAfter all these years, I can still use a slide rule - to scratch my back.
December 02, 2017, 08:38 AM
cincinnatijimTheres a slipstick around here somewhere. Haven't seen it for years.
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December 02, 2017, 08:47 AM
ChowserWow, 37 years and all that distance and my radio can't even get a signal in the basement at work.
But I can hear and transmit one county over.
Not minority enough!