Posted on 12/02/2017 4:37:18 PM PST by BenLurkin
Voyager 1 hadn't used its four "trajectory correction maneuver" (TCM) thrusters since November 1980, during the spacecraft's last planetary flyby — an epic encounter with Saturn. But mission team members fired them up again Tuesday (Nov. 28)...
The little engines passed the test with flying colors, NASA officials said.
"The Voyager team got more excited each time with each milestone in the thruster test," Todd Barber, a propulsion engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. "The mood was one of relief, joy and incredulity after witnessing these well-rested thrusters pick up the baton as if no time had passed at all."
As Barber's words suggest, the mission team didn’t do this out of idle curiosity. Voyager 1 — which in August 2012 became the first human-made object ever to enter interstellar space — has long been using its standard attitude-control thrusters to orient itself into the proper position to communicate with Earth. But the performance of these thrusters has been flagging for at least three years, so mission team members wanted to find an alternative option.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Methinks that the best choice re “identity” of sender would be ( 3.1415 etc etc )and as a radio signal also the best to illustrate the ‘senders’ understanding...
Of course, this is all another NASA hoax, since the Firmament is a dome and the Earth is flat. /rimshot!
Thanks BenLurkin.
“Must be a warm climate. Unless- hey, is that Harvey Weinstein?”
And the ping rate is better than Eastern Europeans playing on American Battlefield servers.
Voyager I calls NASA after 37 years:
NASA, answering the phone: “Hello?”
VOYAGER I: “Hey, it’s Voyager.”
NASA: “Let me put your father on the phone.”
VOYAGER I: “Ma!”
FRANK: “Who is this?”
VOYAGER I: “Dad, it’s me. Hey, listen, I was at Fortuna’s the other day, and, you know what, you were right.”
NASA, feigning a Chinese, muffled voice: “Chinese food.”
FRANK, hanging up: “Sorry, Voyager, our Chinese food just came. Talk to you later.”
VOYAGER I: “Chinese food?”
Okay, I meant to post this on today’s thread on this topic. How did I dig up this old thread??
If Idiocracy is any indication, they won’t exactly be impressed or believe it.
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