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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?"
The cost of checking in with Voyager every now and again is minimal. Far, far less than the costs of building even New Horizons, let alone another Voyager-class mission. And since Voyager is heading for the the heliopause and quite probably will get through it before it dies off or we lose contact, that will be a great scientific benefit. Right now, we don't really know where the heliopause is, exactly. To miss this chance to encounter it would be foolish, especially since our next chance wouldn't come for at least 20 more years, if we launched a mission right now.
Oh, you meant the probe... my mistake...
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.
Can you imagine trying to get a 35-meter dish antenna even so far as low-earth orbit, let alone on a solar-escape trajectory? Get real.
I see no such problem. Perhaps it is you who should take a little time to think before posting; The concept of a sectored parabolic dish that expands when it deploys is not a new concept. If you do that now you're down to an 18m long component. If you're willing to send it up and have a crew assemble it instead of have it self-deploy en route to its destination you can get that number down MUCH smaller.
... 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!
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.
ASCII tastes bad dude.
Binary it is then.
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.
-- We don't understand software, and sometimes we don't understand hardware, but we can *see* the blinking lights
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.
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