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I love the engineering behind Voyager 2. Is there a good book or documentary that folks here on HN recommend to go deep on the various engineering pieces behind

by h43k3r 3y ago

I love the engineering behind Voyager 2. Is there a good book or documentary that folks here on HN recommend to go deep on the various engineering pieces behind Voyager ?

basementcat 3y ago
The following document describes how the Voyager spacecraft communicate with the NASA Deep Space Network. https://descanso.jpl.nasa.gov/DPSummary/Descanso4--Voyager_new.pdf https://descanso.jpl.nasa.gov/DPSummary/Descanso4--Voyager_n... This is part of a larger series of publications that may be of interest. https://descanso.jpl.nasa.gov/DPSummary/summary.html https://descanso.jpl.nasa.gov/DPSummary/summary.html
- Simon_O_Rourke 3y ago
  Very interesting stuff - I had to go do my homework after reading that on how the radio ranging modulation works.
NooneAtAll3 3y ago
there's this conference talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H62hZJVqs2o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H62hZJVqs2o
7373737373 3y ago
These three videos by EEVblog detail the ground based antennas and how it is contacted: EEVblog 1547 (Part 1) - Contacting the Voyager 2 Space Probe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=586Zn1ct-QA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=586Zn1ct-QA EEVblog 1547 (Part 2) - PINGing the Voyager 2 Space Probe!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUvzgZt1Vug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUvzgZt1Vug EEVblog 1547 (Part 3) - Tour of the NASA Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfZz4EnhJBE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfZz4EnhJBE
mycologos 3y ago
It's not particularly "deep", but The Farthest [1] is a nicely constructed documentary of the Voyager program featuring interviews with many of the relevant people. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farthest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farthest
JKCalhoun 3y ago
A book instead, the Haynes NASA Voyager Workshop Manual goes into plenty of technical detail. https://www.amazon.com/NASA-Voyager-Owners-Workshop-Manual/dp/0857337750 https://www.amazon.com/NASA-Voyager-Owners-Workshop-Manual/d...
- jqcoffey 3y ago
  I had no idea Haynes was doing this. Hysterical and wonderful. Thank you!
  - JKCalhoun 3y ago
    Pretty sure it's just selling the brand, ha ha. They're very in-depth though.
retrac 3y ago
There's a book on the computers used at NASA from the beginning through to when it was written - late 80s, I think. Whole thing is available online [1] It has a chapter titled "Voyager - The Flying Computer Center". [2] It gives a high-level overview of the computers and software. Three different processors, each dual redundant. 18 and 16 bit machines. Comparable to early 1970s minicomputers. There's a good talk about the computers on the Voyagers available online here. [3] As far as I know, beyond what's available between those two sources, very little otherwise is available publicly on the computer hardware itself - no detailed architecture descriptions, instruction sets, electronics details, etc. And no software listings. Though if I had to guess the 18-bit machines are a lot like - but not the same as - the OBP/AOP/NSSC series [4]. A bit of Voyager trivia: the computers were reprogrammed in-flight to give new abilities the Voyagers didn't have at launch, such as new image compression algorithms to allow more images to be returned than originally anticipated. [1] https://history.nasa.gov/computers/contents.html https://history.nasa.gov/computers/contents.html [2] https://history.nasa.gov/computers/Ch6-2.html https://history.nasa.gov/computers/Ch6-2.html [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H62hZJVqs2o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H62hZJVqs2o [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSSC-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSSC-1
ultrahax 3y ago
“The Farthest” by PBS has interviews with the people who built the probes, it’s a pretty great watch https://www.pbs.org/the-farthest/ https://www.pbs.org/the-farthest/

by h43k3r 3y ago

I love the engineering behind Voyager 2. Is there a good book or documentary that folks here on HN recommend to go deep on the various engineering pieces behind Voyager ?

basementcat 3y ago

The following document describes how the Voyager spacecraft communicate with the NASA Deep Space Network. https://descanso.jpl.nasa.gov/DPSummary/Descanso4--Voyager_new.pdf https://descanso.jpl.nasa.gov/DPSummary/Descanso4--Voyager_n... This is part of a larger series of publications that may be of interest. https://descanso.jpl.nasa.gov/DPSummary/summary.html https://descanso.jpl.nasa.gov/DPSummary/summary.html

Simon_O_Rourke 3y ago
Very interesting stuff - I had to go do my homework after reading that on how the radio ranging modulation works.

NooneAtAll3 3y ago

there's this conference talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H62hZJVqs2o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H62hZJVqs2o

7373737373 3y ago

These three videos by EEVblog detail the ground based antennas and how it is contacted: EEVblog 1547 (Part 1) - Contacting the Voyager 2 Space Probe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=586Zn1ct-QA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=586Zn1ct-QA EEVblog 1547 (Part 2) - PINGing the Voyager 2 Space Probe!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUvzgZt1Vug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUvzgZt1Vug EEVblog 1547 (Part 3) - Tour of the NASA Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfZz4EnhJBE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfZz4EnhJBE

mycologos 3y ago

It's not particularly "deep", but The Farthest [1] is a nicely constructed documentary of the Voyager program featuring interviews with many of the relevant people. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farthest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farthest

JKCalhoun 3y ago

A book instead, the Haynes NASA Voyager Workshop Manual goes into plenty of technical detail. https://www.amazon.com/NASA-Voyager-Owners-Workshop-Manual/dp/0857337750 https://www.amazon.com/NASA-Voyager-Owners-Workshop-Manual/d...

jqcoffey 3y ago
I had no idea Haynes was doing this. Hysterical and wonderful. Thank you!
- JKCalhoun 3y ago
  Pretty sure it's just selling the brand, ha ha. They're very in-depth though.

retrac 3y ago

There's a book on the computers used at NASA from the beginning through to when it was written - late 80s, I think. Whole thing is available online [1] It has a chapter titled "Voyager - The Flying Computer Center". [2] It gives a high-level overview of the computers and software. Three different processors, each dual redundant. 18 and 16 bit machines. Comparable to early 1970s minicomputers. There's a good talk about the computers on the Voyagers available online here. [3] As far as I know, beyond what's available between those two sources, very little otherwise is available publicly on the computer hardware itself - no detailed architecture descriptions, instruction sets, electronics details, etc. And no software listings. Though if I had to guess the 18-bit machines are a lot like - but not the same as - the OBP/AOP/NSSC series [4]. A bit of Voyager trivia: the computers were reprogrammed in-flight to give new abilities the Voyagers didn't have at launch, such as new image compression algorithms to allow more images to be returned than originally anticipated. [1] https://history.nasa.gov/computers/contents.html https://history.nasa.gov/computers/contents.html [2] https://history.nasa.gov/computers/Ch6-2.html https://history.nasa.gov/computers/Ch6-2.html [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H62hZJVqs2o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H62hZJVqs2o [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSSC-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSSC-1

ultrahax 3y ago

“The Farthest” by PBS has interviews with the people who built the probes, it’s a pretty great watch https://www.pbs.org/the-farthest/ https://www.pbs.org/the-farthest/