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Voyager Keeps on Trucking

Posted by michael on from the to-boldly-go dept.

spagiola writes "CNN has a brief story about Voyager I continuing on past Pluto, and about the problems of keeping in touch with it as it keeps heading further away. They've activated a spare sun sensor and star tracker. I wonder: would it make sense to send out another probe after it, to relay messages to/from it?"

6 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Actually, not so useless... by tomzyk · · Score: 2, Informative

    Thanks for the info. (no sarcasm here) I was actually wondering about the article.

    The article says:
    "Voyager I was launched in 1977 to study and photograph the giant planets in the outer solar system...."

    and then later says:
    "A robotic twin of Voyager I left Earth in 1975 as well. Voyager II is heading in the opposite direction of Voyager I and traveling at a slightly slower speed."

    That confused the hell outta me. (Why would they name it "II" if it left 2 years earlier than "I"???)

    As for the fastest man-made object, Deep Space 1 would have it I believe with its ion drive (53,100 kilometers per hour):
    http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/sola rsystem/ deepspace_propulsion_000816.html

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    Karma: NaN
    1. Re:Actually, not so useless... by Mr.Intel · · Score: 5, Informative

      As for the fastest man-made object, Deep Space 1 would have it I believe with its ion drive (53,100 kilometers per hour): http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/ deepspace_propulsion_000816.html

      That was just an estimate of capability. For actual speeds, check the official website out here. Also look at the log archives of the different staff members. Here you will see that as of July 29, 2001 it was travelling at 16.5 km/s! That's 16,500 m/s or 0.055C. So you are correct, it is the fastest man-made object so far.

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      ASCII tastes bad dude.
      Binary it is then.
    2. Re:Actually, not so useless... by Gaurang · · Score: 3, Informative


      I dont know what you ppl are talking about!!!!

      0.05C!!!!! *Are you MAD*?

      One-Twentieth the speed of light????????

      I was so astounded on seeing this, that I did the math myself.

      I dont know how can so many people commit this simple mistake.

      As far as I know, 16.5 km/s is just equal to 0.000055C. (Speed of light=300000km/s)

      It will not be in our lifetimes that we acheive speeds of OneTwentieth the speed of light.

      --
      I have found a solution to Riemann's Hypothesis, but have run out of spac
  2. Re:Relaying is silly by zardor · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Japenese Halca satellite, launched in 1997 had an 8 meter deployable dish, and it was supposed to be superceeded by something bigger (but funding got a bit tight of course)
    The "Trumpet" SigInt (Signals Intellegence) satellites, of which the NSA has launched 4 or so, have an absolutly HUGE dish. See Pic here Size is said to be in the region of 150-200 meters in diameter, in a very high orbit (either Moylina, or Geosync)
    (Of course, it needs to be that size to pick up your keystrokes and monitor radiation from orbit.)

    Karma cap reached, so mod somebody else up.

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    -- We don't understand software, and sometimes we don't understand hardware, but we can *see* the blinking lights
  3. Re:Dare I Suggest ... by MadCamel · · Score: 2, Informative

    Too late. Voyager is currently running on Nuclear Power, that 20 year life estimate mentioned in the article is actualy when they figure the juice will run out.

  4. Re:Dare I Suggest ... by Gogo+Dodo · · Score: 3, Informative
    As somebody pointed out, Voyager is using nuclear power.

    NASA already uses nuclear power for their long range probes. For example, Galileo at Jupiter and Cassini-Huygens going to Saturn are all nuclear power.

    Do note that the nuclear power is for the electronics. Both probes carry propellent for orbital maneuvering, etc.