shutting down voyager

[noose]

the voyager mission is without a doubt the most important space mission we have going right now, what other can delve into the outmost reachs of our solar system? hell if we scrap voyager it would be another 20+ years before we get another space craft into a similar position.... <br /><br />and now becuase the hairless monkey wants to put people on mars and the moon we have to cut this program.... 4.2 million is all it cost per years 4.2 freaking million... that's chump change for this government...<br /><br />we lost 8.8 billion so far in iraq and that's just money that is "LOST" and apperently noone wants to look for... <br /><br />that 8.8 would have funded this research untill their batteries run oiut in 2020....<br /><br />but no it's better for that douche bush to rip off this nation than it is for america to stay at the cutting edge of exploration and science....<br /><br />if bush allows this program to be cut then he is a traitor to america and should be banished from our shores....<br /><br />"I gotta waste more money that's mor eimportant than science" <br /><br /><br /><br />everyone who supports science should understand this... <br /><br />""""Today Voyager 1, about 9 billion miles from Earth and traveling at 46,000 mph, and Voyager 2, about 7 billion miles away doing 63,000 mph, are flirting with the edge of the solar system, where the sun's magnetic field and the solar wind give way to interstellar wind. <br /><br />Virtually nothing is known about this boundary. Data from the spacecraft show periodic jumps in radiation levels -- expected when the solar wind is no longer able to block incoming cosmic rays -- followed by smaller declines. <br /><br />"By 2006, the spacecraft may have crossed into the outermost layer of solar atmosphere, where the supersonic wind has slowed and heated to a million degrees as it interacts with the interstellar wind," said California Institute of Technology physicist Edward C. Stone, Voyager's chief scientist from the outset. "If Voyager is t

 

[mooware]

<font color="yellow">if bush allows this program to be cut then he is a traitor to america and should be banished from our shores.... </font><br /><br />Well, don't think it makes him a traitor. But, I'll go with the banishment anyway. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br />

 

[centsworth_II]

We certainly owe a lot to those two probes, but as the saying goes: "What have you done for me lately?" To provide convincing evidence for the need to continue funding, better concentrate on what can still be done with them than on past accomplishments. What real, new science can be accomplished at the edge of the solar system with the Voyagers if they are kept alive? This is what needs to be shown to demonstrate the folly of killing them. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[rogers_buck]

Perhaps private money might be raised to operate the probes going forward. I wonder if there are any efforts being taken in that direction?

 

[noose]

yeah maybe I got alittle to excited so yeah we can just banish him... but not into space, I don't want him messing that up for us....

 

[noose]

see that's the problem... you never know what you'll learn untill you've learned it... so people could all day say "well we'll find out blahditty blah" but in the end it's just a guess.....

 

[adzel_3000]

Hubble...Voyager...and other vanguards of pure science and research within NASA. These missions are all being shut down due to budgetary needs to support a mission to Mars, however...<br /><br />I sometimes wonder if the Fundamentalist Christians that seem to have Mr. Bush's ear are trying to curtail any potential discoveries that could be at odds with doctrine. <br /><br />It makes me wonder if there will actually be a JWST or other unmanned, science-only missions, such as TPF.<br /><br />--A3K

 

[mkofron]

Christianity played a roll in the dark ages before. Why discount the possibility of it happening again?

 

[mkofron]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>.... 4.2 million is all it cost per years 4.2 freaking million... that's chump change for this government... <br /><p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />May I remind you that Bush spent $40 million, nearly 10 times that amount, on his inauguration PARTY.

 

[grooble]

Who gives a rats ass about voyager when theres children starvin? 4.2 million could save thousands of lives. <br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /> There's always a better use for money.

 

[centsworth_II]

<font color="yellow">"... you never know what you'll learn untill you've learned it...</font><br /><br />But what can be known is the capability of the probe. Given the instrumentation and communication staus, what types of observations are possible? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[centsworth_II]

<font color="yellow">"Christianity played a roll in the dark ages before. Why discount the possibility of it happening again?"</font><br />I don't.<br /><br /><br /><font color="yellow">"...Bush spent $40 million... on his inauguration PARTY."</font><br />In situations like this, I console myself by thinking of all the employees of hosting venues, catering services, etc. that make a living on this sort of thing. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[dragon04]

A "Christian conspiracy" to stifle science? How melodramatic.<br /><br />Myself, I'd like to see Voyager 1 continue to be funded at least.<br /><br />Maybe the SETI Institute could come to the rescue with the ATA and while less frequently, still maintain regular contact with the Voyagers?<br /><br />I think that someone doesn't understand that the Voyagers are perhaps on the verge of discoveries every bit as important as all those pretty pictures they took.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[heyscottie]

Actually, Christianity in genearl, and the Catholic Church in particular, was just about the only bastion of learning and continued knowledge in the entirety of Europe during the dark ages. People love to point back to the church officials refusing to look into Galileo's telescope and somehow give that as evidence that Christianity is in some way trying to surpress science. Did it happen? Yes. Is it happening now? No.<br /><br />While you certainly will find Christians that debate or deny certain scientific findings (such as evolution, age of the universe, etc.), I don't think you will find very many that claim that research into these topics is bad. They look at the same data we do, and come to different conclusions.<br /><br />The problem is not that Bush is a Christian. The problem is that Bush is in a quagmire in Iraq, wants to cut taxes to all Americans, and there simply isn't enough money to go around. Everybody has got their pet project. For everybody, their pet project is the most important one. For everybody, if their pet project is cut, then the cutter must be unenlightened, shortsighted, hateful towards our goals, etc.<br /><br />That's simply not the case. We just can't fund everything. I, too, would like to see Voyager extended, and perhaps it still will be, but we need to wake up to realities here. Politicians are lawyers and businessmen, not scientists. If you want to see different decisions, elect scientists and engineers to Congress. Above all, politicians are politicians. And to be honest, they know that the public in general doesn't care a flea's eyelash about the Voyager programs. How is it to their interest to keep them going? It just isn't.

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Actually, Christianity in genearl, and the Catholic Church in particular, was just about the only bastion of learning and continued knowledge in the entirety of Europe during the dark ages. People love to point back to the church officials refusing to look into Galileo's telescope and somehow give that as evidence that Christianity is in some way trying to surpress science. Did it happen? Yes. Is it happening now? No.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />One thing a lot of people don't know is that the Church, as you say, did not surpress science during the Dark Ages. The main point of confusion is that many people don't know when the Dark Ages was.<br /><br />Galileo didn't live in the Dark Ages (the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Medieval period), nor did he live in the Middle Ages (also known as the Medieval period). He was born at the tail end of the Renaissance, around the time that a great deal of social, philosophical, and religious upheaval was occuring throughout Europe. That context is pretty significant to understanding what happened, because it wasn't just Galileo, and because the Church was in a situation where it genuinely did feel threatened, mainly by the Reformation movement. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[soulseeker]

I can not really see why it costs 4.2 million? All they have to do is monitor the spacecraft, what worthwhile data could it be sending back now?

 

[nacnud]

time on the deep space network, cost to keep people employed who know how the space craft works etc

 

[CalliArcale]

It's mainly sending back plasma wave science and particle counts, as I understand it.<br /><br />The $4.2 million would be to fund the remaining mission team members and to pay for time on the DSN; Voyager still gets a dedicated slot every day for each probe if memory serves. (The DSN schedule used to be available online. It was pretty cool to look at. The Voyagers showed up as VGR1 and VGR2. It disappeared, sadly, and I don't know why.) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[soulseeker]

I see, that is sad I would have liked to have seen that. I am afraid that our economy is only going to get worse and with the cost of fuel sky rocketing(no pun intended) it is going to get worse.

 

[grooble]

Why not just restart the program 15 years from now, the probe will still be out there?

 

[paulolearysp]

Could there be a way to privately fund it? Maybe they could get Virgin to sponsor it? Then VGR1 could stand for Virgin Galactic Receiver1?

 

[paulolearysp]

That sounds like a good idea to me. I was proposing that VGR1 could be renamed Virgin Galactic Receiver1. For marketing purposes, they'd probably love to own the further's man made object in the solar system!<br />

 

[paulolearysp]

Here is the weekly report link. I'm not sure why it takes 10 people to do this. The reports have hardly changed in the past 10 years!<br /><br />http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/weekly-reports/index.htm

 

[centsworth_II]

I really haven't followed the Voyagers so I have no idea how much useful science they can yet provide. I hope whatever is decided is what best serves the purposes of space exploration, and not just NASA's bottom line. <br /><br />As to my two word response ("I don't")to the question of discounting a possible role for christianity in creating a new "dark age": I know little of the historical dark ages. I was thinking of the current fundamentalist push to include creationism, or even exclude evolution from school curricula. <br /><br />Cenuries ago, perhaps even as Christian Europe was in its dark age (I admit historic ignorance), some Muslim countries were centers of learning. Today fundamentalist Muslim teaching has all but eliminated scientific learning in some countries. Fundamentalist Christians, if given the power, are capable of the same stifling of scientific thought. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>That sounds like a good idea to me. I was proposing that VGR1 could be renamed Virgin Galactic Receiver1. For marketing purposes, they'd probably love to own the further's man made object in the solar system! <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Unfortunately, the beaurocracy involved in selling off government property (especially property as expensive and much-loved as the Voyagers) would probably make it impractical to do so before a possible mission cancellation. (It's still possible they'll get continued funding; we'll have to wait and see.) Once the mission is cancelled, it's not certain they'd be able to lock on to the Voyagers again if the mission were revived. They're not spin-stablized like the Pioneers were, and require some maintenance of their attitude. I understand their computers aren't entirely capable of handling that independently, and that the correction maneuvers have to be planned out by the Earth-based controllers. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>