Re: Voyagers 1 & 2
I am going to merge this with the existing Voyager discussion.
Welcome to Space.com!
Wayne
I am going to merge this with the existing Voyager discussion.
Welcome to Space.com!
Wayne
- Status
Re: Voyagers 1 & 2
Yeah it's crazy how long they have been functional and how many discoveries they have made. I wonder how much longer they have to live.
Yeah it's crazy how long they have been functional and how many discoveries they have made. I wonder how much longer they have to live.
Re: Voyagers 1 & 2
It's estimated that sometime in the next ten years, they will cease operations. It's a race between declining propellant reserves (which are needed to maintain signal lock on Earth) and declining output from the RTGs. The RTGs are powered by the natural decay of plutonium, which generates heat; this will go on for thousands of years, but the thermocouples used to convert that heat into usable electricity do wear out. Power output has been declining for years, and is already low enough that most of the instruments have had to be turned off, or used only sequentially, to share the available power load. (It's not like a battery, where turning stuff on runs it down. But there is only so much power available at a given time, so you can only have so many things on at once, and some instruments require more power than is now available.)
I love the Voyagers. They are my very favorite space probes. ;-) So it makes me very happy that you like them too!
It's estimated that sometime in the next ten years, they will cease operations. It's a race between declining propellant reserves (which are needed to maintain signal lock on Earth) and declining output from the RTGs. The RTGs are powered by the natural decay of plutonium, which generates heat; this will go on for thousands of years, but the thermocouples used to convert that heat into usable electricity do wear out. Power output has been declining for years, and is already low enough that most of the instruments have had to be turned off, or used only sequentially, to share the available power load. (It's not like a battery, where turning stuff on runs it down. But there is only so much power available at a given time, so you can only have so many things on at once, and some instruments require more power than is now available.)
I love the Voyagers. They are my very favorite space probes. ;-) So it makes me very happy that you like them too!
Re: Voyagers 1 & 2
When it does die that will truly be a sad day.
CalliArcale":2zgdi8oj said:
When it does die that will truly be a sad day.
Re: Voyagers 1 & 2
Dont worry for them, they are not going anywhere with their speed. One day, mankind will get out there, catch up with them, grab them and put them in a museum.
aldenthechronicler":1z8hjvl5 said:
Dont worry for them, they are not going anywhere with their speed. One day, mankind will get out there, catch up with them, grab them and put them in a museum.
Voyager 1
Im not sure if this is allowed here but I will ask anyway. Does anyone know if we are still receiving transmissions from the spacecraft? (the most recent I found was in 2006). If so, how does the data travel from so far away?
Im not sure if this is allowed here but I will ask anyway. Does anyone know if we are still receiving transmissions from the spacecraft? (the most recent I found was in 2006). If so, how does the data travel from so far away?
Re: Voyager 1
I don't know the frequency, but researchers continue to receive useful data from both Voyagers.
"The Deep Space Network, the premier network for deep space communications, allows the Voyager spacecraft to continue to send new and unique data from the far reaches of space. Voyager 1 is the farthest spacecraft from the Sun, even beyond the recently discovered Sedna, and Voyager 2 is the second farthest operating spacecraft. As these distances continue to increase, the DSN has implemented new techniques, such as arraying of antenna and combining of weak signals, that will allow continuing excellent support of the Voyager spacecraft."
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/profiles_dsn.html
I don't know the frequency, but researchers continue to receive useful data from both Voyagers.
"The Deep Space Network, the premier network for deep space communications, allows the Voyager spacecraft to continue to send new and unique data from the far reaches of space. Voyager 1 is the farthest spacecraft from the Sun, even beyond the recently discovered Sedna, and Voyager 2 is the second farthest operating spacecraft. As these distances continue to increase, the DSN has implemented new techniques, such as arraying of antenna and combining of weak signals, that will allow continuing excellent support of the Voyager spacecraft."
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/profiles_dsn.html
Re: Voyager 1
Voyagers 1 & 2 will continue to be active until about ~2020 when their nuclear 'batteries' wear down to the point where they cannpot adequately power any more instruments. In the meantime they are still delivering robust and important science about plasma physics.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html
Note that so far NASA has only launched Voyagers 1 & 2, I am not aware of any plan to launch V-ger (a.k.a. Voyager 6), or of how close the nearest black hole worm whole to a distant part of the galaxy might be. :lol:
Voyagers 1 & 2 will continue to be active until about ~2020 when their nuclear 'batteries' wear down to the point where they cannpot adequately power any more instruments. In the meantime they are still delivering robust and important science about plasma physics.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html
Note that so far NASA has only launched Voyagers 1 & 2, I am not aware of any plan to launch V-ger (a.k.a. Voyager 6), or of how close the nearest black hole worm whole to a distant part of the galaxy might be. :lol:
Re: Voyager 1
I will merge this with the existing Voyager thread tomorrow since there's lots of good info there.
MW
I will merge this with the existing Voyager thread tomorrow since there's lots of good info there.
MW
Re: Voyagers 1 & 2
NASA IDs Voyager 2 spacecraft data problem
"Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the "flip of a bit" in the memory of an onboard computer appears to have caused the disruption. A value in a single memory location was changed from a 0 to a 1."
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/05 ... 274196385/
NASA IDs Voyager 2 spacecraft data problem
"Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the "flip of a bit" in the memory of an onboard computer appears to have caused the disruption. A value in a single memory location was changed from a 0 to a 1."
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/05 ... 274196385/
Re: Voyagers 1 & 2
Now really enough with the yellow and white. I can barely read anytyhing you're posting!
Now really enough with the yellow and white. I can barely read anytyhing you're posting!
Re: Voyagers 1 & 2
Those are old posts from a loooooong time ago, several SDC forum software versions ago. The fora had a different color background back then. I'll see if I can change the text color to make it easier to read now. Not sure, never tried before...
Edit: I made it better..
MW
Those are old posts from a loooooong time ago, several SDC forum software versions ago. The fora had a different color background back then. I'll see if I can change the text color to make it easier to read now. Not sure, never tried before...
Edit: I made it better..
MW
They are using new software for processing those old images. Results :
http://www.planetary.org : Possibly the best view of the Great Red Spot ever
This is very much on my disk, and at least a couple more from Voyagers. Thanks for bumping this thread
There is more in the quoted thread, like this video :
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQk7AFe13CY[/youtube]
Emily Lakdawalla":2trus5to said:
http://www.planetary.org : Possibly the best view of the Great Red Spot ever
...Sep. 1, 2010 | 16:40 PDT | 23:40 UTC
by Björn Jónsson
This is a new, big mosaic of Voyager 1 images, this time showing the Great Red Spot at high resolution. The contrast and sharpness have been greatly exaggerated. [Visit unmannedspaceflight.com for a version without this exaggeration.]
Voyager mosaic of the Great Red Spot of Jupiter :
Voyager mosaic of the Great Red Spot of Jupiter
This 12-footprint color mosaic of Jupiter's Great Red Spot was composed of 24 images captured through orange and violet filters by Voyager 1 on March 4, 1979 at a distance of about 1.85 million km. The resolution is roughly 24 km/pixel in the "click to enlarge" version; for a full-resolution version at 18 km/pixel (2.5 MB), click here. Credit: NASA / JPL / color mosaic by Björn Jónsson
This is very much on my disk, and at least a couple more from Voyagers. Thanks for bumping this thread
There is more in the quoted thread, like this video :
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQk7AFe13CY[/youtube]
http://www.planetary.org : Voyager Mission Status Bulletins: Jupiter and Saturn
...
Uranus or Bust
Cartoon published in the October 12, 1981 Voyager Mission Status Report (#67). The artist was not credited -- anybody know who the doodler was?
I am drooling over that GRS mosaic. In fact, I'm going to make it my new desktop background.
The Voyager with a sling on its scan platform is adorable. I remember when Voyager was still en route to Uranus, and the mission team was trying to massage the platform back to life. That takes me back. I was a major geek even then; I would've been in grade school, yet reading about the technology of the probe. Good days.
The Voyager with a sling on its scan platform is adorable.
I remember when Voyager was still en route to Uranus, and the mission team was trying to massage the platform back to life. That takes me back. I was a major geek even then; I would've been in grade school, yet reading about the technology of the probe. Good days.Hi Calli,
Also Voyager 2 was considered to have had only a 12% chance of success at Uranus & only approx 1% chance of success at Neptune after the Saturn encounter. NASA though still approved the extention as engineers were quietly confident that with care, Voyager 2 could be reprogrammed & with better energy management, she could pull at least Uranus off successfully.
A quick resume below of what Voyager 2 showed us of the major moons of Uranus.
Puck. 162 KM wide. previously unknown, discovered during the approach by Voyager 2. The grainy image below (enlarged by me) reveals a somewhat out of round shape with a large crater. Puck looks a lot like a giant cometary nucleus.
Uranus moon Miranda from Voyager 2. Which at 480 KM by 468 KM by 466 KM is highly geologically diverse. Either Miranda absorbed two former co-orbitals or was smashed & reassembled, with denser rock separating out forming a core with the ice 'warming' up in the process, creating the strange landscape, before refreezing. Huge cliffs, up to 16 KM high are seen & remain the highest known cliffs in the solar system.
Uranus moon Ariel from Voyager 2. 1162 KM by 1156 KM by 1155 KM is just slightly larger than the Saturn moons Tethys & Dione. Unlike Tethys but like Dione, Ariel shows a history of geological activity including faulting & graben but unlike Dione, Ariel has tall mountains, mesas & channels running along the centre of some of the graben. Also many craters appear 'softened' like many of those on the Saturn moons Enceladus & Dione.
Ariel like the Saturn moons Enceladus & Dione & Jupter moon Europa appears to have 'rolled' i.e the heaviest cratered terrain is not on the leading hemisphere, as would be expected, as the heaviest cratered terrain is on the leading side meeting impactors head on. With Ariel, diapirs (columns of 'warmer' ice) rose through the mantle & repositioned the central mass of Ariel, with respect to Uranus, causing it to 'roll' into a new orientation.
The cause of the activity is not obvious, perhaps at some point, Ariel was in a more elliptical orbit around Uranus & experienced tidal heating as a result (a much reduced version of Jupiter's Io).However, the next moon out, Umbriel is primitive & unevolved, so makes that scenario appear less likely.
Uranus moon Umbriel. 1,170 KM across. Out of the five main moons of Uranus, Umbriel appears to be the most primitive & unevolved. Impact craters dominate, with a basin surrounding the bright impact crater at the top. Below, two images, the one on the right, highly contast enhanced.
The largest of the Uranian moons, Titania, which at 1,577 KM across is the largest mid sized moon in the solar system, just eeking ahead of the Saturn moon Rhea in size. Unlike Rhea, Titania clearly shows signs of geological activity in the past. Huge canyons are visible as is a smoother region. The canyons appear to be gigantic graben, when the crust cracked as the ice rich mantle froze & possibly rock settled out to form a core. Titania is much denser than Rhea too, appearing to be an approximate 50-50 ice to rock composition, where as Rhea is approx 90-10 ice to rock ratio.
Also unlike Rhea, Titania also appears to have brighter toned terrain on some slopes & on the walls of some of the graben. Perhaps frost???? Does Titania have an exosphere????
Finally but not least is Oberon. The second largest of the moons of Uranus at 1,523 KM across & the outermost of the large moons. Oberon is just slightly smaller than Saturn's Rhea, but unlike Rhea, Oberon displays evidence of geological activity. Oberon has a huge number of impact craters for sure, but the floors of many are dark possibly due to cryovolcanism, Oberon too has tall mountains & faulting.
Many craters also appear to have 'softened' much like many on the Saturn moons Enceladus & Dione, suggesting the crust has not always been brittle, i.e Oberon went through a 'warming' period. A huge shame, that Oberon could not be seen at the same level of detail as Miranda or Ariel.
Andrew Brown.
Also Voyager 2 was considered to have had only a 12% chance of success at Uranus & only approx 1% chance of success at Neptune after the Saturn encounter. NASA though still approved the extention as engineers were quietly confident that with care, Voyager 2 could be reprogrammed & with better energy management, she could pull at least Uranus off successfully.
A quick resume below of what Voyager 2 showed us of the major moons of Uranus.
Puck. 162 KM wide. previously unknown, discovered during the approach by Voyager 2. The grainy image below (enlarged by me) reveals a somewhat out of round shape with a large crater. Puck looks a lot like a giant cometary nucleus.
Uranus moon Miranda from Voyager 2. Which at 480 KM by 468 KM by 466 KM is highly geologically diverse. Either Miranda absorbed two former co-orbitals or was smashed & reassembled, with denser rock separating out forming a core with the ice 'warming' up in the process, creating the strange landscape, before refreezing. Huge cliffs, up to 16 KM high are seen & remain the highest known cliffs in the solar system.
Uranus moon Ariel from Voyager 2. 1162 KM by 1156 KM by 1155 KM is just slightly larger than the Saturn moons Tethys & Dione. Unlike Tethys but like Dione, Ariel shows a history of geological activity including faulting & graben but unlike Dione, Ariel has tall mountains, mesas & channels running along the centre of some of the graben. Also many craters appear 'softened' like many of those on the Saturn moons Enceladus & Dione.
Ariel like the Saturn moons Enceladus & Dione & Jupter moon Europa appears to have 'rolled' i.e the heaviest cratered terrain is not on the leading hemisphere, as would be expected, as the heaviest cratered terrain is on the leading side meeting impactors head on. With Ariel, diapirs (columns of 'warmer' ice) rose through the mantle & repositioned the central mass of Ariel, with respect to Uranus, causing it to 'roll' into a new orientation.
The cause of the activity is not obvious, perhaps at some point, Ariel was in a more elliptical orbit around Uranus & experienced tidal heating as a result (a much reduced version of Jupiter's Io).However, the next moon out, Umbriel is primitive & unevolved, so makes that scenario appear less likely.
Uranus moon Umbriel. 1,170 KM across. Out of the five main moons of Uranus, Umbriel appears to be the most primitive & unevolved. Impact craters dominate, with a basin surrounding the bright impact crater at the top. Below, two images, the one on the right, highly contast enhanced.
The largest of the Uranian moons, Titania, which at 1,577 KM across is the largest mid sized moon in the solar system, just eeking ahead of the Saturn moon Rhea in size. Unlike Rhea, Titania clearly shows signs of geological activity in the past. Huge canyons are visible as is a smoother region. The canyons appear to be gigantic graben, when the crust cracked as the ice rich mantle froze & possibly rock settled out to form a core. Titania is much denser than Rhea too, appearing to be an approximate 50-50 ice to rock composition, where as Rhea is approx 90-10 ice to rock ratio.
Also unlike Rhea, Titania also appears to have brighter toned terrain on some slopes & on the walls of some of the graben. Perhaps frost???? Does Titania have an exosphere????
Finally but not least is Oberon. The second largest of the moons of Uranus at 1,523 KM across & the outermost of the large moons. Oberon is just slightly smaller than Saturn's Rhea, but unlike Rhea, Oberon displays evidence of geological activity. Oberon has a huge number of impact craters for sure, but the floors of many are dark possibly due to cryovolcanism, Oberon too has tall mountains & faulting.
Many craters also appear to have 'softened' much like many on the Saturn moons Enceladus & Dione, suggesting the crust has not always been brittle, i.e Oberon went through a 'warming' period. A huge shame, that Oberon could not be seen at the same level of detail as Miranda or Ariel.
Andrew Brown.
You are very welcome EarthlingX.
The moons of Uranus were real unknowns prior to Voyager 2. Coverage of Miranda & Ariel are pretty well nearly orbiter quality & all five of the main moons were seen well enough to be able to compare with the similarly sized Saturn moons Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus & Mimas.
Below Uranus rings, seen in detail for the first time by Voyager 2.
Uranus Epsilon Ring seen in detail.
51,200 KM wide Uranus, third largest planet in the Solar System from Voyager 2. Also a false colour view showing differing layers of haze. Crescent Uranus seen for the first time ever, a view NEVER possible from Earth.
Andrew Brown.
The moons of Uranus were real unknowns prior to Voyager 2. Coverage of Miranda & Ariel are pretty well nearly orbiter quality & all five of the main moons were seen well enough to be able to compare with the similarly sized Saturn moons Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus & Mimas.
Below Uranus rings, seen in detail for the first time by Voyager 2.
Uranus Epsilon Ring seen in detail.
51,200 KM wide Uranus, third largest planet in the Solar System from Voyager 2. Also a false colour view showing differing layers of haze. Crescent Uranus seen for the first time ever, a view NEVER possible from Earth.
Andrew Brown.
www.planetary.org : An awesome animation of Jupiter's clouds
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHwkdcppsuo[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHwkdcppsuo[/youtube]
www.jpl.nasa.gov : Saturn Then and Now: 30 Years Since Voyager Visit
...November 11, 2010
The image from Voyager 1 (left) shows convective clouds on Saturn in 1980. The Cassini image (right) shows the "dragon storm" of 2004, which was a powerful source of radio emissions detected by Cassini -- similar to the bursts of static generated by lightning on Earth. In 2009, Cassini captured images of lightning flashing in Saturn's atmosphere.
Ed Stone, project scientist for NASA's Voyager mission, remembers the first time he saw the kinks in one of Saturn's narrowest rings. It was the day the Voyager 1 spacecraft made its closest approach to the giant ringed planet, 30 years ago. Scientists were gathering in front of television monitors and in one another's offices every day during this heady period to pore over the bewildering images and other data streaming down to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Stone drew a crude sketch of this scalloped, multi-stranded ring, known as the F ring, in his notebook, but with no explanation next to it. The innumerable particles comprising the broad rings are in near-circular orbits about Saturn. So, it was a surprise to find that the F ring, discovered just a year before by NASA's Pioneer 11 spacecraft, had clumps and wayward kinks. What could have created such a pattern?
"It was clear Voyager was showing us something different at Saturn," said Stone, now based at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "Over and over, the spacecraft revealed so many unexpected things that it often took days, months and even years to figure them out."
...
http://www.planetary.org : Voyager Mission Status Bulletins
MISSION STATUS BULLETIN No.1 :
...
...
Voyager Bulletin
JPL published newsletters containing status updates on the Voyager missions from 1977 to 1990.
From 1977 to 1990, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory kept scientists and space enthusiasts informed about the status of the twin Voyager spacecraft through an intermittently printed newsletter that ran to 99 issues. Space fan (and pack rat!) Tom Faber kept his collection and, in 2010, scanned them and sent them to the Planetary Society. We are delighted to host these important historical documents here, and thank Mr. Faber for his patience in scanning them.
Each Mission Status Bulletin is in PDF format, scanned in black and white at 200 DPI, amounting to about 1 Megabyte per page. Bulletins 1 to 27 appear dark because they were printed on colored paper. The subsequent ones were printed on white but thinner paper. So far, Bulletins 1 to 80, covering the period from before launch to after Voyager 2's Uranus encounter, are online; the rest are coming soon.
Links take you to the PDF documents. Below each link is a listing of the section headings within each newsletter and of the photos, diagrams, and artworks printed along with the text. You may also download Zipped collections of the bulletins:
MISSION STATUS BULLETIN No.1 :
...
...
- Status
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