Voyager 2 - Images?

[bearack]

Good day to all:<br /><br />I know NASA is still receiving data from both Voyager 1 and 2 but was wondering if anyone has any clue if any images have been received since entering interstellar space? <br /><br />I've tried to look on the web, but to no avail and you folks here seem to be of the brightest.<br /><br />Thanks,<br /><br />Tim <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><br /><img id="06322a8d-f18d-4ab1-8ea7-150275a4cb53" src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/6/14/06322a8d-f18d-4ab1-8ea7-150275a4cb53.Large.jpg" alt="blog post photo" /></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

AFAIK, all imaging has been shut down for quite a while, due to lack of power.<br /><br />The Voyagers are on life support. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />A good place to learn about the current status is here on the<br /> JPL Voyager pages <br /><br />Just click around there for a while, I'm sure you'll have fun; I know I do!<br /><br />Wayne<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[bearack]

Thanks for the link and information. I think on our next interstellar adventure, maybe we should consider having a power supply just for outside our solar system. Would be interesting to see what we might just stumble across. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><br /><img id="06322a8d-f18d-4ab1-8ea7-150275a4cb53" src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/6/14/06322a8d-f18d-4ab1-8ea7-150275a4cb53.Large.jpg" alt="blog post photo" /></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

Also see the Voyager Mission thread in Missions & Launches. Lots of good info there. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[pyoko]

One of the last images I know of that were 'famous' was the image of Earth as a tiny speck in the dark. <br /><br />http://home.honolulu.hawaii.edu/~pine/bluedot.htm<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="color:#ff9900" class="Apple-style-span">-pyoko</span> <span style="color:#333333" class="Apple-style-span">the</span> <span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span">duck </span></p><p><span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color:#808080;font-style:italic" class="Apple-style-span">It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.</span></span></p> </div>

 

[bearack]

Thanks for that. Not sure I've seen that before. Makes you feel like an ameba in comparison of the whole picture of things. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><br /><img id="06322a8d-f18d-4ab1-8ea7-150275a4cb53" src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/6/14/06322a8d-f18d-4ab1-8ea7-150275a4cb53.Large.jpg" alt="blog post photo" /></p> </div>

 

[vandivx]

"I think on our next interstellar adventure, maybe we should consider having a power supply just for outside our solar system."<br /><br />this was discussed here a while back and people here explained to my similar querry how one can't want that, how the budget is bootstrapped, how the payload weight is correspondingly limited and how its all compromised and that we should be glad the thing got launched at all and realistically they are right<br /><br />than I see those threads crop ou that are discussing launching some probe to go to nearest star which would likely return any data to some future generations and I think that is all hogwash, how do they want to launch something that won't bring returns during their lifetimes when they are so cheap and so shortsighted that they could only look as far as planets with voyagers launch<br /><br />maybe nobody imagined they would last that long power supplies or no power supplies, who knows<br /><br />there could have been backup power supply which if it wouldn't be needed in the end would be switched on and used when the probe would get way out there, like it could have been switched on some five or ten years ago and it would now still be going ok, we could have gotten some picture data and whatever before the connection would get too tenuous but that's just an uneducated guess though<br /><br />of course such approach that implies some unlimited funding would be hijacked by scientists who would instead of some doubtfull data harvesting from far out there would rather settle for extra instruments onboard to explore their favourite planets, so no matter if you increased budget (and no budget is unlimited) it would get eaten by some exploratory goals considered more important anyway and nothing would be left for uncertain harvesting of outer solar space data unless it would be dedicated probe for outer solar system space only but we are such cheapskates or so short sighted that we don't send out such probes dedicated to those far re <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[qso1]

One of the reasons for not having the power supply for outside the solar system was that nobody expected the Voyagers to last this long. Such a supply would be useful for extending the probing of the existing conditions in deep space but maintaining imaging capability just in case the probe should pass something? From astronomical observations, we pretty much knew what was on the Voyager trajectory observation wise and the Voyagers have long since past those and with space being so vast, the chances of imaging a large target are very remote. It would be interesting to take an image and use it for parallax comparisons of the positions of close in stars to see how close we are in our distance measurements. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[vandivx]

you're right, there is probably no chance of taking picture of some nearby object (the word 'probably' should be taken out I think) but it could take pictures of stars and use it for paralax measurement as you say and also periodically look back at solar system and see what it looks like from there but mainly it would be harvesting all kinds of exotic data like on that heliopause thing and so on<br /><br />earlier this year they were full thirty years on their journey and likely all older scientists who designed it are dead now or near there unles they were in their thirties at the time or else long lived <br /><br />vanDivX <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

One of the two vehicles has lost the use of its scan platform, I believe, which means it can no longer use any of the instruments on the platform, including the cameras. I don't remember which one. The other one was using its camera a few years ago to attempt to detect the glow of the Sun's bowshock -- an area where the interstellar medium is compressed by the passage of the heliosphere through it, like waves breaking off the bow of a moving ship.<br /><br />I'm not sure either of them can use their cameras anymore. It's more than just the power consumption of the cameras themselves; they have to be able to run the heaters to keep them warm in the meantime, and of course things do break down eventually. I remember Voyager 2 was having problems with its scan platform way back when it encountered Neptune. IIRC, lubricants had become more viscous over time. <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>

 

[emperor_of_localgroup]

If we don't have some type of imaging capability, and one day the Voyagers stop sending normal signals, what would be our final conclusion?<br /><br />Is it because of a malfunction, its juice ran out, or it got hit by something? If it is the third cause, we'd never know and would keep advancing theories after theories without them (the hitters). <br /><br />But I still think the Voyagers are one of the best examples of human curiosities. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="2" color="#ff0000"><strong>Earth is Boring</strong></font> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

Regardless of whether the cameras are functioning or not, we won't know for sure what happened to them -- after all, if they get nailed by debris, they can't tell us that afterwards unless it's not a fatal hit, and even if they survive the impact, I don't think they can image themselves. And we wouldn't have images of incoming debris, because they can't just continually record images and continually beam them back to Earth -- they just aren't built to do that. Images and the downlink sessions containing the images have to be planned well in advance. <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>

 

[qso1]

It would be interesting to have images of the solar system from wherever they are now. The one they took in 1990 IIRC, was quite impressive. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[nimbus]

qso1<br />I'd like to see that image, could you describe it a bit more so that I might google for it? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[3488]

I think you mean this, from Voyager 1. <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /><br /><br />Sun, Venus & Earth, Voyager 1.<br /><br />Six Planets, Voyager 1.<br /><br />Pale Blue Dot, Earth, Voyager 1.<br /><br />Pale Blue Orb, Cassini.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[qso1]

Looks like Andrew Brown beat me to it...good links too. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[nimbus]

Very cool, thanks!<br />The light speck directly to the right of Venus, near the right edge of the frame is just noise, right? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[qso1]

I don't see the speck your referring to but that may just be my vision not bein as good as it once was. I would have to say its noise or some kind of image artifact. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

Andrew is active .

 

[venator_3000]

I appreciate your point. I'm not certain about whether we would see a mission to the stars in the near term. I thought this extended heliosphere probe is of interest. A camera for Kuiper surveys, as well as a possible treasure trove of information on how a star (ours) interacts with the ISM. <br /><br />Stepping stones. Such data would likely help in the planning and design of the type of "true" interstellar probe you describe.<br /><br />Link:<br /><br />http://interstellar.jpl.nasa.gov/interstellar/probe/index.html<br /><br />V3K <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[rybanis]

Interesting how they want to use a solar sail to get a bunch of speed... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[venator_3000]

It is incremental, but also a perfect use for such a means of propulsion. One way trip to the edge and all that. <br /><br />For the propulsion package there would need to be several demonstrators, beforehand. 200m scale is quite large and Cosmos 1 only had eight blades at 15m each. Maybe Cosmos 2 will help gain some insight into solar sailing.<br /><br />V3K<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[emperor_of_localgroup]

Very interesting and useful info in the link. Thanks. Now I have more questions than answers.<br /><br />I guess they determined existence of various elements in inter-stellar space using absorption spectra of light from other stars. I don't think the Voyagers have entered into that space yet. The elements in inter-stellar space mentioned in the site cannot be the data from the Voyagers.<br /><br />Also I didn't see any data on density of those elements specially charged elements, which can create some sort of electric currents as claimed by EU people. My guess is density is extremely low.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="2" color="#ff0000"><strong>Earth is Boring</strong></font> </div>

 

[nimbus]

This one.. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[vandivx]

also thx for the link although I might have seen that site once when we had thread here on travel to stars<br /><br />even if it went as planned (lift off by 2010) I am not sure I would live untill it got anywhere near to those 400 AU and that remainds me of the thread topic about pics from Voyagers, problem there is also that nobody could count on ourselves still even keeping in touch with the probes this long because the technology required to do that when the probes were launched likely wasn't developped yet at all, so nobody could count on signal being received from voyagers from that far away and so they didn't think it necessary to provide for such long trip<br /><br />vanDivX <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>