NASA fires Voyager 1 thrusters after decades-long sleep
Source: CNET
Way out in interstellar space, humanity's most distant messenger wanders through the universe. NASA's Voyager 1 launched way back in 1977, but it's still in touch with Earth. To help keep it in contact, NASA scientists just fired up a set of thrusters that have been dormant for 37 long years.
Voyager 1 had been using a set of "attitude control thrusters" to point the spacecraft's antenna at Earth in order to send back data. Those thrusters aren't functioning well anymore, so NASA engineers figured out how to revive a different set of thrusters called "trajectory correction maneuver" (TCM) thrusters. NASA last called on those thrusters in late 1980.
On Tuesday, NASA sent the command to fire the TCM thrusters in 10-millisecond pulses as a test to see if they could reorient the spacecraft. It took nearly 20 hours before Voyager's signal reached back to Earth, but it was successful.
Voyager 1 reached interstellar space, which NASA describes as "the environment between the stars," in 2012, making it the first human-made object to leave our solar system.
Read more: https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-fires-voyager-1-thrusters-after-decades-long-sleep/
Maxheader
(4,369 posts)truly..
pangaia
(24,324 posts)Orrex
(63,165 posts)jpak
(41,756 posts)damn you
damn you to h e double l hockey sticks!!!!!1111
Bad!
jpak
(41,756 posts)to pass through our solar system
Happened 2 weeks ago,
eggplant
(3,907 posts)Those flat earthers were right all along.
FBaggins
(26,714 posts)lastlib
(23,132 posts)paleotn
(17,870 posts)This is what it really looks like...
Science is wonderful. These technicians and engineers are accomplishing amazing feats with really old equipment. Imagine what they could do if they had real support from the government.
Good post, Calista241. Thanks!
Volaris
(10,266 posts)You really think if uncle Sam said 'figure out a way to magrail yourself for dc to socal in less time it takes to fly the same distance'
That every damn engineer in America wouldn't have something to do for the next 10 years?
This Nation SURVIVES by the Frontier. If we don't have it, we get bored as fuck and do Bad Things (like bring 'democracy' to the middle east and elect reality tv-stars).
Want Proof? We invaded Iraq and elected Donald Fucking Trump. If we had been busy designing and paying for a trip to Mars, neither of those things would have happened.
dalton99a
(81,374 posts)pangaia
(24,324 posts)It is almost beyond belief.. Just amazing stuff..
I have a friend who is an aeronautical engineer or an aerospace engineer or an astrological engineer or something..
He worked at the JPL.-- oh, maybe 30 years or so?? He used to work for Rocketdyne also... I forget how the 2 jobs connected... He's some kinda genius.
He used to work on the space shuttle engines. He told me once there was a problem with something (not the engines) that nobody had been able to solve. He worked on it steady for some 5 years and solved it!!!
Then they fired him(fuckers). Now works for Boeing in Huntsville, AL, of all places...
Elon Musk offered him a job. he said he wouldn't go near the place... Who knows why..
canetoad
(17,133 posts)irisblue
(32,916 posts)made the rest of the movie palatable.
mdbl
(4,973 posts)The first movie was that bump. Strange rehash of other stories like the changeling -but now am glad they used the Voyager in the story - makes the real Voyager much more exciting.
brooklynite
(94,293 posts)mdbl
(4,973 posts)I'll agree the 5th could have used some better writing.
AllaN01Bear
(17,935 posts)red dog 1
(27,755 posts)Incredible!
roamer65
(36,744 posts)We built both of them well.
https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/
NNadir
(33,455 posts)TeamPooka
(24,201 posts)pecosbob
(7,533 posts)benld74
(9,901 posts)Go Voyager Go
Owl
(3,638 posts)Nitram
(22,755 posts)Nitram
(22,755 posts)turbinetree
(24,683 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)I love space travel/universe magnitude and expanse...my small hope something intelligent, peaceful and evolved past the technology of Voyager will be found...
A Morpheus Felinae
(41 posts)Boldly going where no one has gone before.
Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)johnnylol
(31 posts)are they still getting data from this?
Calista241
(5,585 posts)They used the magnetometer to determine when the vessel crossed into interstellar space. There are also a few other still operating.
Dr_Pretorius
(71 posts)Amazing. Really helps you understand how far a light year is!
Kablooie
(18,605 posts)They just wake up and immediately NASA fires them.
Where are they going to find work now since they are so far away from any other job site?
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)But instead of a barn, it's in space, constantly bathed in extremely powerful radiation, and subjected to near absolute zero temperature.