Almost thought this article was an April fools joke of some kind, but I found it on a HAM Radio site I subscribed to. No way those guys could have a sense of humor…

Anyway, pretty insane imo. They “woke up” Voyager 1’s thrusters from 13 billion miles away that hadn’t been fired since like 1980 in order to correct its course.

https://www.physics-astronomy....from-13-billion.html

13 billion miles... I have a hard time believing technology today can communicate that far but stuff back from the 1970s.... I find it harder to believe.

According to the article it took 19 days for the signal to reach it..??

Another unrelated site…


https://www.engadget.com/2017-...ackup-thrusters.html

Oh, great. Wake up V'ger...

NASA has not updated the Voyager website but that may still be a while off knowing how bad they are at this sort of thing (just compare a SpaceX launch to a NASA launch).

I do know they adjusted it in 2017 I think this was the last time they have adjusted it's course. I really think it will eventually come back to report in and then we are all doomed . . .

"...on November 28, NASA had to interact with the spacecraft and perform a minor course correction...."

A course correction to go...where? Circle back to earth?

quote:

Originally posted by dry-fly:
According to the article it took 19 days for the signal to reach it..??

Actually it was 19 hours, not days according to the article. Still amazing none the less.

Jim

The distance this craft has traveled is mind boggling. Communication time between us and it is about 19 hours. It is almost 1 billion miles from the sun to Saturn. Voyager 1 is @13 times that far. And has barely left the zone of the suns influence.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Oh, great. Wake up V'ger...

Yea but then the bald chick comes into play!

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:

quote:

Originally posted by dry-fly:
According to the article it took 19 days for the signal to reach it..??

Actually it was 19 hours, not days according to the article. Still amazing none the less.

Jim

Yep, a signal traveling 186,000 miles/sec would take just over 19 hours to travel 13,000,000,000 miles.

I'm not too surprised that it is possible to signal Voyager from the Earth, because we have very large antennae and powerful transmitters here. I am surprised that we could receive a signal back (if we did)--those big antennae have a lot of gain, but the Voyager transmitter is weak and there is a lot of radio noise in the environment.

flashguy

Can someone explain to me what technology allows us to send a signal 13 billion miles away and receive communication back without any degradation?

Honestly I think this is BS. Here's another article dated 2 years earlier that basically says the same thing:

https://www.kqed.org/science/1...-heres-what-happened

quote:

On November 28, 2017, NASA sent the command to Voyager to test-fire the TCM thrusters. That radio signal travelled through space for 19.5 hours to reach Voyager (that's now far away it is), while NASA engineers waited.

Then, after another 19.5 hours of silence, NASA's Goldstone radio antenna in the Mojave Desert received word from Voyager 1 that the thrusters had fired!

So back in 2017 Voyager was 13 billion miles away and it took 19.5 hours. Fast forward 3 years and it's still 13 billion miles away and takes 19 hours to communicate? This doesn't pass the smell test.

I’m with 229DAK: a course correction to where? It’s 13 billion miles from Earth and in interstellar space. What’s NASA trying to do, slingshot it around a particular star 50 or 100 thousand years from now? Better have a precise understanding of galactic gravitational interactions if you’re going to pull that one off!

It’s almost guaranteed to come back with containers of black goo.

19 hours for the signal to reach voyager 13 billion miles away...

Still, it took two years for this article to reach Sigforum...

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
19 hours for the signal to reach voyager 13 billion miles away...

Still, it took two years for this article to reach Sigforum...

We don’t have government resources.

quote:

Originally posted by frayedends:
It’s almost guaranteed to come back with containers of black goo.

It’s got all sorts of diagrams and schematics and pictures telling anyone out there about us and how to find us, so if anyone or anything out there has any ill intent and the technology, they are coming… Someday.

Sorry I misread the 19 days thing…

Klaatu Barada Nikto....

quote:

Originally posted by signewt:
Klaatu Barada Nikto....

And lets not forget the Twilight Zone classic, "To Serve Man".