3 ms·
The round-trip request/response time for a command is 39 hours (!) ... I guess the team has normalized to that latency, but when asking a system to fire with pa
by emptybits 9y ago
The round-trip request/response time for a command is 39 hours (!) ... I guess the team has normalized to that latency, but when asking a system to fire with paths of execution plus hardware plus propellant/etc that haven't been used for 37 years ... I can only imagine the tension and celebration.
Related question ... can an easily amateur listen to response transmissions like this that come back from probes?
- ohazi 9y agoI had a chance to visit the Deep Space Network facility at Goldstone several years ago (definitely worth a visit if you can arrange one). The antennas they use vary in size from 26 to 70 meters in diameter, and even then they need to use lots of process gain because the signal is still several dB below the noise floor. Amateur tracking would probably be incredibly difficult.
- PoachedSausage 9y agoYou will definitely want to be doing cryogenic cooling of your receiver front-end to reduce the noise figure[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_figure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_figure
- DigitalJack 9y agoJust as a reference point, GPS signals are below the noise floor as well. Typically by 20dB.
- rhcom2 9y agoThe Deep Space Network uses a 34-meter antenna to contact Voyager, not something most people can put in their backyard :) https://science.howstuffworks.com/question431.htm https://science.howstuffworks.com/question431.htm
- CamperBob2 9y agoGoogling Amateur-DSN will probably give you a link to the Yahoo group where the people who do that kind of thing hang out. The short answer is that yes, numerous interplanetary probes can be received by amateurs with moderate effort/expenditure, but reception from the Voyagers is out of the question without access to a massive antenna.