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Voyager 1 Fires Up Thrusters After 37 Years (nasa.gov)
If you tried to start a car that's been sitting in a garage for decades, you might not expect the engine to respond. But a set of thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft successfully fired up Wednesday after 37 years without use. NASA announces: Voyager 1, NASA's farthest and fastest spacecraft, is the only human-made object in interstellar space, the environment between the stars. The spacecraft, which has been flying for 40 years, relies on small devices called thrusters to orient itself so it can communicate with Earth. These thrusters fire in tiny pulses, or "puffs," lasting mere milliseconds, to subtly rotate the spacecraft so that its antenna points at our planet. Now, the Voyager team is able to use a set of four backup thrusters, dormant since 1980. "With these thrusters that are still functional after 37 years without use, we will be able to extend the life of the Voyager 1 spacecraft by two to three years," said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
That honestly boggles the mind to think of something built so long ago, sitting in the harsh environment of space still able to function that well - not to mention all of the other hardware working well enough to instruct the thrusters to fire. Well done.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
But do his thrusters work after 37 years?
The space between the stars? Show me somewhere that isn't between two stars.
It seems NASA has an answer at https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/in...
The thing was designed to operate at near-zero (K) temperatures and deep vacuum. That's colder than liquid nitrogen, and zero oxidation or whatever.
You don't exactly store your car under these kinds of conditions.
Incidentally, when you do store your car under proper conditions, it fires up after 50 years. Youtube the video of a Russian WW2 tank being revived in 2013.
Oh shit, Russia collusion!
Someone has no idea what the news actually means!
What is so very puzzling to me is why you think candidates should not be able to talk to foreign governments, at all? I mean, what do you think every candidate since ever has done about foreign policy before they were elected?
It seems like you would all get tired of thinking you are going to impeach trump when all you have done is shot another gaping hole in your own foot.
Wow, flying your own space ship to crazy land are you? Fascinating.
On a note that is not related to people with crazy brain syndrome, this achievement is quite noteworthy.
On a somewhat related side note, has anyone heard of test results of the EM drive in space yet? I had heard it was being sent up but cannot find any articles with reference to whether or not tests in zero g resulted in a net thrust force. The EM drive would be a vast improvement over even the ion drive which I believe is what this craft utilized to get so far out into space along with gravity slingshot techniques.
Do we really have to explain the difference between an internal combustion engine and a spacecraft thruster?
Do we really have to explain the difference between a planetary atmosphere and the near vacuum of space?
Do we really have to explain just how awful this analogy is?
'If you tried to start a car that's been sitting in a garage for decades, you might not expect the engine to respond. But a set of thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft successfully fired up Wednesday after 37 years without use'.
The fact that you kept/added this to the story says it all I think ;(
So when Obama contacted Hamas in 08 before the election, that was A-OK with you? I guess collusion with terrorists isn't as bad as talking to a #2 nuclear power about helping out Israel.
Go walk by the beach: perchance some undocumented demonrat will "find a gun" accidentally at you three times.
is infested with carbon units.
P.S> forced past
Just pull out the choke, pump the throttle, put a cartridge in the Coffman starter and fire it.
Have gnu, will travel.
FYI, you can see what each antenna in NASA's Deep Space Network is doing at any given moment by Looking at this site..
Below each antenna is the craft being communicated to. Clicking on the antenna and then "+ more detail" will get you some info about signal strengths, transmission rates, round trip light times, and more.
I don't see one right this moment but it is common to find one of the 70m antennas talking to one of the Voyagers. Right now Goldstone antenna 14 (70m) is talking with New Horizons.
Captcha = acquire
left the solar system. There is the very real possibility that some Russian Cosmonauts have ended up there.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Yeah well that's all well and good until it comes back looking to merge with the creator.
Still trying to polish that turd aren't you ? Poor poor pathetic Trump supporters.
Candidates and administrators are allowed to talk to foreign governements. What they are not allowed to is commit perjury.
One doesn't make the decision of lying to the FBI lightly. He does so to hide a crime which, if discovered, would yield worse consequences than perjury. Now, what could that be ?
Treason comes to mind. Of course I could be wrong. But Hilary could well have run a peodophile ring from the basement of a pizza restaurant also.
Some 6 years ago us kids decided he couldn't drive anymore, and he wouldn't give up his keys. I swapped a couple of his ignition wires, truck wouldn't start and dad (who used to be an A-1 mechanic) (now with the alzheimer's option) couldn't figure out why.
6 years later dad is still going strong, health wise, is totally gone, mentally wise, and I don't remember which wires I crossed and am not an A-1 mechanic. Plus 4 flat tires, and a truck that hasn't moved in 6 years/
31 years from now? My niece is a useless waste of oxygen who can barely maintain her US-gov mail to keep her welfare coming while she plays video games 24/7. The other niece and nephew are 2,000 miles away and have never been part of dad's life, doubt they could start dad's truck. If I'm alive in 31 years I expect to make a killing on the talk show circuit. Won't be actively trying to kill off oldest person alive, but will be sending thoughts and prayers that they let me be #1 for a week or two.
So when Obama contacted Hamas in 08 before the election, that was A-OK with you?
Is this coming from the Republican Fairy Tale where his birth certificate is still fake? McCain tried that shit before the election.
It was bullshit then, it's still bullshit now.
I guess collusion with terrorists isn't as bad as talking to a #2 nuclear power about helping out Israel.
Yep, it is. Here's a hint: If anybody's selling out to terrorists, it's Trump who just loves him some Saudi money.
Go walk by the beach: perchance some undocumented demonrat will "find a gun" accidentally at you three times.
Go pray in your church, perhaps some repukeathug will "demonstrate gun safety" and accidentally shoot you instead of themselves.
Fire the trans-phasic lateral thrusters.
Fifty fears from now, imagine space aliens come to earth with our satellite, and ask us to play for them what's on the records. We look around, but, embarrassed, can't find a turntable.
left the solar system.
That and a manhole cover.
Have gnu, will travel.
Cool, you can thank my late father, he was a lead control systems engineer on that project.
And on the Magellan, and Mariner projects.
Oh, and the A-12... but thats another story.
The point is that the new one could have been built to last long too, while being efficient.
But companies deliberatey don't. Because "Deutschland, Deutschland, ... err, I mean, "profit, profit über alles!".
Its particles are actually extremely hot. There just are very few of them!
That is not the same as the (very many very slow particles) that you mean.
left the solar system.
That and a manhole cover.
and a teapot.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
We will make our country Great Again.
In time, Obama will be indicted, tried, and convicted. His name will become synonymous with "treasonous shit". Some of you demonrats will wake up or will otherwise be cured. The rest will have nothing better to do than scream at the sky:
"REEEE, Russia impeach, REEEEE." Dumpf Mueller any day now pussy racist.
Not to mention when Col. Mustard was caught with the candlestick in the Parlor!
Talk about Guilty!
as a completely disinterested non US citizen
have you got any idea how freaking insane that post makes you sound?
like that's eating lead based paint chips for 30 years level of nuts
I like this thing is still working at nearly 40 years old and 20 light hours away, when my computer and phone update weekly, and I doubt my hardware would be supported in 30 years even if it still worked.
The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
Thanks for your opinion.
From my side, desperate times call for desperate measures. Obama has "toxified" American discourse with his identity politics:
most people of color now sincerely believe that there is prevalent racism, and that whites genuinely hate and oppress them. They believe that the blacks never had it worse than under Trump (or hispanics, or women, or whatever "suppressed minority" they self-identify with).
The times of slavery were not as bad as now, apparently. Yes, that's what many Americans are brain-washed into believing today!
This kind of delusion requires shock therapy in my opinion: strength, courage, and conviction in a better future we will make for ourselves. Like that puppy molested by the owner: any time anyone would touch it, it would cry out in terror believing that all humans would hurt it... until enough love and care was given to it, and the delusion broke down. Hopefully the "suppressed minorities" will eventually realize that nobody is burning crosses on their lawns under Trump, but the crime is going down, the jobs are coming back, and everybody is getting better off.
Demonrats know they have max 1-2 years until the delusion breaks, so they will try to do anything possible to remove Trump before then.