Slashdot Mirror
Voyager Keeps on Trucking
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?"
Here is some useless information about the Voyager spacecraft...
From the article:" Voyager 1 was launched on Sept. 5, 1977 and completed flyby exploration of both Jupiter and Saturn. The spacecraft now is rising above the ecliptic plane -- the plane in which most of the planets orbit the sun -- at an angle of about 35 degrees at a rate of about 520 million kilometers (about 320 million miles) a year.
Voyager 2 was launched on Aug. 20, 1977 and also completed visits to Jupiter and Saturn and then went on to explore Uranus and Neptune, completing the reconnaissance of the giant outer planets. The spacecraft is now diving below the ecliptic plane at an angle of about 48 degrees and a rate of about 470 million kilometers (about 290 million miles) a year.
So Voyager 1 is travelling at 320,000,000 miles per year. That is about 3090 m/s or 0.0103C. Not too shabby! Voyager 2 is at 290,000,000 miles per year or 2800 m/s or 0.0093C.
I wonder what the fastest man made object is? Hmmm let's see, this page says that the Ulysses probe was the fastest at 15 km/sec. That's 15,000 m/s or 0.05C! Then this page claims the Pioneer 10 was the fastest at 51,810 km/hour. That's 14,391.67 m/s or 0.04797C. So it looks like Ulysses wins. If you can find anything else to add to the list, please do!
ASCII tastes bad dude.
Binary it is then.
... especially since our next chance wouldn't come for at least 20 more years, if we launched a mission right now.
Not even. Voyager 2 used four gravity assists off of the giant planets to build up speed. Even IF we launched today, we couldn't get to Uranus or Neptune with conventional rockets. The configuration of the planets that allowed the multiple-assist grand tour of the solar system (giving the two Voyager probes more delta-V than we can with today's (or even tomorrow's) technology) only occurs once every ~180 years.
To quote a NASA mission scientist on Voyager, "the last time this was possible, Jefferson was President. And boy, did he blow it."
In Soviet Russia, sig types you!
Some day, in a museum some place, the voyager 1 probe will sit on display. (The actual one that is out there now). At some point we will have the capability to go out and actually retrieve the probe. Assuming something doesn't hit the probe and we have some means of locating it I don't see why it wouldn't be possible.