Voyager 1 spacecraft thrusters fired up for first time since 1980

[Homer J Simpson]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/01/us/voyager-1-thrusters-fired-first-time-since-1980/index.html

[Halcyon]

Just amazing.

What a credit to the engineers who have built this thing with the technology of the day which still works given the harsh environment of space.

It also blows my mind that we're able to send and receive data from an object that's almost 19 billion kilometres from Earth! Sure the data rate is slow, but just wow! I'm not sure what the rate is coming from VGR1, but we're receiving data from VGR2 at about 16 bytes/sec, so I'd imagine VGR1 is roughly around the same.

[xrunner]

It is expected that in the year 40,272, Voyager 1 will come within 1.7 light years of an obscure star in the constellation Ursa Minor (the Little Bear or Little Dipper) and in about 40,000 years, Voyager 2 will come within about 1.7 light years of a star called Ross 248, a small star in the constellation of Andromeda.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/01/us/voyager-1-thrusters-fired-first-time-since-1980/index.html

[raptor1956]

The two Voyager space probes will surely go down as one of our greatest achievements and nearly 40 year on they're still doing there job.  Those first pictures, up close and personal, with Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus, though eclipsed by later missions, were nonetheless watershed moments in solar system science.  They had a once in a lifetime opportunity to do a grand tour taking advantage of the alignment of the outer planets and made the most of it.  The era of US space exploration that began with Mercury, then continued with Gemini and Apollo, and then culminated with the first Mars lander and Voyager are the high water mark of US engineering.  And to think that much of it was done using slide rules and drafting tables.


Brian

[rdl]

The Farthest

Highly recommended for anyone interested in space exploration.

[BradC]

Not to nitpick, but it was a case of the TCM thrusters hadn't been fired up since 1980. The attitude control thrusters have been used since launch, but they are running out of fuel. The fact they could be re-purposed to step in and take over is another engineering milestone that should go down in history.

I love the Voyager craft. To me they are a milestone of the human engineering prowess and a massive tip of the hat to the US and the Engineering capability it developed. The fact they are still powering on is a testament to the pre-"cost down" engineering era and still something to aspire to (if you are not beholden to "shareholder value").

[Messtechniker]

And to think that much of it was done using slide rules and drafting tables.

Which makes me wander which sort of electrolytic? capacitors were used for the
electronics of this spacecraft or any long life spacecraft for that matter?
Probably nothing off the shelf.

[amyk]

And to think that much of it was done using slide rules and drafting tables.

Which makes me wander which sort of electrolytic? capacitors were used for the
electronics of this spacecraft or any long life spacecraft for that matter?
Probably nothing off the shelf.

Wet tantalums.

[Kjelt]

Every ten degrees colder doubles lifetime does that also count below zero?

[Peabody]

I think it was that documentary that pointed out that long after the sun has become a red giant, and swallowed up the earth and everything on it, these spacecraft will still be making their way through interstellar space, and the gold platter will still likely be playable. 

[TerraHertz]

The Voyager missions are also known for their ability to expose reporter's space and science ignorance.
For instance this gem from http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/12/02/544198/NASA-Voyager-Earth-Planet
"The plutonium-powered spaceships will continue until they finally run out of fuel, and will then orbit in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. (Source: AFP)"   


And before anyone jumps on me, yes I know that technically they will be orbiting the center of gravity of the galaxy. And something like that is probably what the reporter distorted through misunderstanding.

[EEVblog]

The two Voyager space probes will surely go down as one of our greatest achievements and nearly 40 year on they're still doing there job.  Those first pictures, up close and personal, with Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus, though eclipsed by later missions,

Not Uranus and Neptune, Voyager II was the last to go there.

[Lord of nothing]

Why not fire the hole fuel up so the reach the next galaxy faster? 

[Kjelt]

Why not fire the hole fuel up so the reach the next galaxy faster? 

Because then you can not communicate with the craft anymore.
The only reason for firing the trusters was a minute rotation correction so the dish was aligned with earth.

Question will they have to correct the rotation for the coming 40000 years till the craft finally reaches its destination?

[Lord of nothing]

I believe there will be better and fast ships who can overtake the slow Voyager so why does the need any connection?

[HalFET]

Why not fire the hole fuel up so the reach the next galaxy faster? 

Because then you can not communicate with the craft anymore.
The only reason for firing the trusters was a minute rotation correction so the dish was aligned with earth.

Question will they have to correct the rotation for the coming 40000 years till the craft finally reaches its destination?

I doubt the RTG will last that long, not sure if there are numbers on it? I'd expect the output to go too low in about 10-20 years given their age and size. Depends a bit on how long they were in storage beforehand.

When we do build something that can catch up with it we should go and replace the RTG out of principle. 

[glarsson]

I believe there will be better and fast ships who can overtake the slow Voyager so why does the need any connection?

The Voyagers use the connection to send science data NOW.
A faster ship has not been built, launched nor overtaken any Voyager. It is therefore not sending any science data now.

[rdl]

Interstellar 8-Track: How Voyager's Vintage Tech Keeps Running

... the original designers were told not to worry about reaching interstellar space and focus on making sure the Voyagers could observe Jupiter and Saturn.

“Basically they kind of ignored those directions, nodded their heads and did what they wanted to make it capable of getting to interstellar space,”

( Suzanne Dodd,  Voyager project manager at JPL )

[Nerull]

There will always be something better coming along in the future, that's the nature of technology. If all you ever do is sit and wait for technology to improve, you'll be waiting forever and will have accomplished nothing.

[Red Squirrel]

It's incredible how far that is now and how we can still talk to it.

I wonder though, how did they send a command if the dish was not pointing to Earth?  Does it also have an omni receiver antenna?  The amount of precision to beam a signal that far would be crazy though!  Must be nerve wracking to send a command and have to wait so long to know if it did anything.   The fact that it takes so long is incredible in itself as it just shows how crazy far it is.

[TheSteve]

It's incredible how far that is now and how we can still talk to it.

I wonder though, how did they send a command if the dish was not pointing to Earth?  Does it also have an omni receiver antenna?  The amount of precision to beam a signal that far would be crazy though!  Must be nerve wracking to send a command and have to wait so long to know if it did anything.   The fact that it takes so long is incredible in itself as it just shows how crazy far it is.

If the alignment wasn't totally off they could still send a signal from earth to Voyager as the transmit power on earth is magnitudes greater then what Voyager is transmitting back to earth.

[rdl]

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/

Look to the top of the page and watch how fast the distance from Earth increases.

[BrianHG]

The Farthest

Highly recommended for anyone interested in space exploration.

Just downloaded it, watching it now, let you know if it is good...

[schmitt trigger]

Also;
thanks to Voyager and its famous photograph "The Pale Blue Dot", Carl Sagan wrote one of the greatest, if not the greatest, eulogy to space exploration.

[Vtile]

...  And to think that much of it was done using slide rules and drafting tables.

I'm pretty sure every engineer had HP-35 (1972) as their slide rule and by the date 1977 there were even a programmable ones in the market.
That said I would be surprised if NASA didn't have a mainframe at that time.