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Voyager is probably the most badass awesome thing ever. Every single aspect of space travel is an engineering/mathematic/scientific marvel. Not only did we pla

Voyager is probably the most badass awesome thing ever. Every single aspect of space travel is an engineering/mathematic/scientific marvel. Not only did we plan, build, launch these, (before I was born) but we're still communicating (until we can't). I'm reading links people have posted here, trying to understand how we communicate with these probes. It's fascinating.

intrasight 9y ago
Well spoken!
everdev 9y ago
They say these new thrusters will extend Voyager's lifespan by 2-3 years. Just curious but does anyone know it's mission in interstellar space? Is it more than just a fun experiment at this point?
- CapitalistCartr 9y ago
  To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no machine has gone before.
  - sitkack 9y ago
    V'Ger will come back.
    - LoSboccacc 9y ago
      aren't they on hyperbolic trajectories?
      - f_allwein 9y ago
        http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/V%27ger http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/V%27ger
- bhuga 9y ago
  Radiolab did a great summary of this just a couple of months ago: http://www.radiolab.org/story/sun-dont-shine/ http://www.radiolab.org/story/sun-dont-shine/ You can skip the parts about the time capsule if you want. tl;dr: it's not clear what defines the edge of the solar system, there's interesting reasons to want to know where it is, and voyager taught us a lot about it.
  - secfirstmd 9y ago
    42
- InclinedPlane 9y ago
  Both Voyagers are still collecting magnetic/plasma field and radiation data (only Voyager 1 is in interstellar space, Voyager 2 hasn't made it yet). Mostly they are measuring the outer edges of the Sun's magnetosphere as it interacts with interstellar space, and it's a dynamic phenomenon so the data is actually more interesting than you might imagine. Several research papers a year continue to come out of the missions.
- Parcissons 9y ago
  There are plans to send it in a long outer ort orbit around the sun, mapping the objects between itself and earth by constantly beaming back signals?
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
userbinator 9y ago
What I find more amazing is the fact that a lot of what could be referred to as "space-age technology" is actually many decades old, and thus was accomplished with a fraction of the processing power and knowledge we have today. Voyager was launched in the late 70s, but based on technology of the 50s and 60s. We visited the Moon almost 50 years ago, using that technology. If you look at old spacecraft hardware, one thing that stands out is its apparent simplicity and down-to-earth (no pun intended) design --- and I'd argue that this is at least partially responsible for its extreme reliability. From that perspective, I feel as though developments in modern technology just can't compete for impact; we constantly search for new ways of designing things, wrapping ourselves in endless layers of abstraction and high-level thought, yet aren't really "getting off the ground" and accomplishing something concrete, so to speak.
- jvanderbot 9y ago
  I've lived through a couple of design reviews for flight software and hardware, and I can tell you this is spot on. The emphasis is on minimal delta from previous products, absolutely nothing remotely risky, and complete assurance of functionality before launch.
- matthewmacleod 9y ago
  From that perspective, I feel as though developments in modern technology just can't compete for impact; we constantly search for new ways of designing things, wrapping ourselves in endless layers of abstraction and high-level thought, yet aren't really "getting off the ground" and accomplishing something concrete, so to speak. I’m not really sure this is true, though I understand why it might feel that way sometimes. I’m currently travelling at about 180mph on board a high-speed train in Japan. I flew here on a jet which is something like 20% more efficient than the equivalent from a few years ago. Using the ubiquitous LTE network, I can make a real-time HD video call to my family back in the UK, using my palm-sized, battery-powered computer. I used the same device earlier to do some research about cities as we passed through them, and also to check the CCTV system at home. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve used a similar technology stack to locate my position to meter-level accuracy, to read and translate foreign language text from images in real time, and to record hours of 4K video. Modern technology is astonishingly powerful - and in some ways, the examples I described above are even more impactful to me on a day-to-day basis than space exploration is. Don’t get me wrong - the latter is still important and exciting! But it’s sometimes too easy to forget the impact of the somewhat more mundane technology that’s all around us.

intrasight 9y ago

Well spoken!

everdev 9y ago

They say these new thrusters will extend Voyager's lifespan by 2-3 years. Just curious but does anyone know it's mission in interstellar space? Is it more than just a fun experiment at this point?

CapitalistCartr 9y ago
To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no machine has gone before.
- sitkack 9y ago
  V'Ger will come back.
  - LoSboccacc 9y ago
    aren't they on hyperbolic trajectories?
    - f_allwein 9y ago
      http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/V%27ger http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/V%27ger
bhuga 9y ago
Radiolab did a great summary of this just a couple of months ago: http://www.radiolab.org/story/sun-dont-shine/ http://www.radiolab.org/story/sun-dont-shine/ You can skip the parts about the time capsule if you want. tl;dr: it's not clear what defines the edge of the solar system, there's interesting reasons to want to know where it is, and voyager taught us a lot about it.
- secfirstmd 9y ago
  42
InclinedPlane 9y ago
Both Voyagers are still collecting magnetic/plasma field and radiation data (only Voyager 1 is in interstellar space, Voyager 2 hasn't made it yet). Mostly they are measuring the outer edges of the Sun's magnetosphere as it interacts with interstellar space, and it's a dynamic phenomenon so the data is actually more interesting than you might imagine. Several research papers a year continue to come out of the missions.
Parcissons 9y ago
There are plans to send it in a long outer ort orbit around the sun, mapping the objects between itself and earth by constantly beaming back signals?

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

userbinator 9y ago

What I find more amazing is the fact that a lot of what could be referred to as "space-age technology" is actually many decades old, and thus was accomplished with a fraction of the processing power and knowledge we have today. Voyager was launched in the late 70s, but based on technology of the 50s and 60s. We visited the Moon almost 50 years ago, using that technology. If you look at old spacecraft hardware, one thing that stands out is its apparent simplicity and down-to-earth (no pun intended) design --- and I'd argue that this is at least partially responsible for its extreme reliability. From that perspective, I feel as though developments in modern technology just can't compete for impact; we constantly search for new ways of designing things, wrapping ourselves in endless layers of abstraction and high-level thought, yet aren't really "getting off the ground" and accomplishing something concrete, so to speak.

jvanderbot 9y ago
I've lived through a couple of design reviews for flight software and hardware, and I can tell you this is spot on. The emphasis is on minimal delta from previous products, absolutely nothing remotely risky, and complete assurance of functionality before launch.
matthewmacleod 9y ago
From that perspective, I feel as though developments in modern technology just can't compete for impact; we constantly search for new ways of designing things, wrapping ourselves in endless layers of abstraction and high-level thought, yet aren't really "getting off the ground" and accomplishing something concrete, so to speak. I’m not really sure this is true, though I understand why it might feel that way sometimes. I’m currently travelling at about 180mph on board a high-speed train in Japan. I flew here on a jet which is something like 20% more efficient than the equivalent from a few years ago. Using the ubiquitous LTE network, I can make a real-time HD video call to my family back in the UK, using my palm-sized, battery-powered computer. I used the same device earlier to do some research about cities as we passed through them, and also to check the CCTV system at home. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve used a similar technology stack to locate my position to meter-level accuracy, to read and translate foreign language text from images in real time, and to record hours of 4K video. Modern technology is astonishingly powerful - and in some ways, the examples I described above are even more impactful to me on a day-to-day basis than space exploration is. Don’t get me wrong - the latter is still important and exciting! But it’s sometimes too easy to forget the impact of the somewhat more mundane technology that’s all around us.