Four 20th century "interstellar" probes, launched in the 1970s, are now drifting out of our Solar System, which itself moves in the direction of a constellation called Leo.
Posted on 06/28/2010 11:11:23 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
NASA's plucky Voyager 2 spacecraft has hit a long-haul operations milestone - operating continuously for 12,000 days. For nearly 33 years, the venerable spacecraft has been returning data about the giant outer planets, and the characteristics and interaction of solar wind between and beyond the planets. Among its many findings, Voyager 2 discovered Neptune's Great Dark Spot and its 450-meter-per-second (1,000-mph) winds.
The two Voyager spacecraft have been the longest continuously operating spacecraft in deep space. Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977, when Jimmy Carter was president. Voyager 1 launched about two weeks later on Sept. 5.
The two spacecraft are the most distant human-made objects, out at the edge of the heliosphere - the bubble the sun creates around the solar system. Mission managers expect Voyager 1 to leave our solar system and enter interstellar space in the next five years or so, with Voyager 2 on track to enter interstellar space shortly after that.
Having traveled more than 21 billion kilometers (13 billion miles) on its winding path through the planets toward interstellar space, the spacecraft is now nearly 14 billion kilometers (9 billion miles) from the sun. A signal from the ground, traveling at the speed of light, takes about 12.8 hours one-way to reach Voyager 2.
Voyager 1 will reach this 12,000-day milestone on July 13, 2010 after traveling more than 22 billion kilometers (14 billion miles). Voyager 1 is currently more than 17 billion kilometers (11 billion miles) from the sun.
(Excerpt) Read more at space-travel.com ...
ping.
BUMP!
I love this stuff!
Maybe Vyger will happen really happen now.
Still using DOS?
Yet another, largely ignored magnificent triumph of American engineering and technology.
And now, back to another story on the contents of Michael Jackson’s large intestine on the day of his death....
/johnny
/johnny
Fantastic engineering. Its still relaying information.The Flight Data System requires 14 watts of power and weighs 16.3 kilograms. Its computer needs just one third of a watt and 10 volts, less than the power required for a temperature sensor. The same computer system was used in the Galileo project.
I started playing engineer about thirty years back, but I can’t imagine any of my creations still in service.
Damned, those guys were good!
Pretty much. The Voyager spacecraft used iron core memory. Every frigging bit was set by hand.
"The total cost of the Voyager mission from May 1972 through the Neptune encounter (including launch vehicles, nuclear-power-source RTGs, and DSN tracking support) is 865 million dollars."
The Neptune encounter was in 1989. Funding both spacecrafts for the two years after that costs $30 million.
Also from NASA:
Q. How much does the Space Shuttle cost?
A. The Space Shuttle Endeavour, the orbiter built to replace the Space Shuttle Challenger, cost approximately $1.7 billion
Q. How much does it cost to launch a Space Shuttle?
A. The average cost to launch a Space Shuttle is about $450 million per mission.
You can check Heavens Above for its current location
Very impresive. Just curious- is Pioneer 10 still transmitting? That’s the one that piqued our interest during fifth grade, especially the discoveru that Jupiter’s Great Red Spot was a hurricane.
We did the math on an earlier thread.
The Voyager 2 spacecraft is currently 8.6 billion miles (13.8 billion km) from Earth. This means the spacecraft has traveled a mere 0.00146 Light Years in 33 years.
The next closest star is about 4.37 light-years distant. At this current speed, it would require 98,500 years to reach Alpha Centauri, if it were even traveling in that direction.
Of course this is totally amazing.
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