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The Loyal Engineers Steering NASA’s Voyager Probes Across the Universe

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Re: The Loyal Engineers Steering NASA’s Voyager Probes Across the Universe

#11

Post by EA »

laydn wrote: post #4

You know, getting these electronics systems ready, sending out to deep space and communicating with these systems is an incredible feat. But, for me, another amazing thing about these long term projects is the sheer amount of knowledge that needs to be maintained and passed on to new people, over the course of several decades. To pull it off, this need of knowledge management and transfer must be so deeply engraved i…

Mentoring programs, technical data packages (manuals and drawings for everything), a data repository (SharePoint), and a dedicated team of trainers.

Re: The Loyal Engineers Steering NASA’s Voyager Probes Across the Universe

#12

Post by yourapostasy »

> ...[the heliosphere] blocks 75 percent of cosmic radiation...

It sounds like a solar system-scale Van Allen belt [1] when described like this. So we have at least three layers of cosmic radiation protection identified (heliosphere, outer VAB, inner VAB).

If the heliosphere has implications for high-precision, high-accuracy independent-of-Earth interplanetary spaceflight similar to gravimetric and magnetic readings on Earth do for submarines today, then mapping the heliosphere would be a future asset.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belt

Re: The Loyal Engineers Steering NASA’s Voyager Probes Across the Universe

#13

Post by sehugg »

... its oscillator, which allows it to accept a wide range of frequencies, had quit, essentially shrinking the target for transmissions from Earth. Assuming a much narrower bandwidth, and manually subtracting the Doppler effect, they recalibrated their signal. It worked — but to this day, the same calculation must precede every command.

IIRC from an old SciAm article, the temperature of the spacecraft's electronics is also taken into account when doing this calculation.

Re: The Loyal Engineers Steering NASA’s Voyager Probes Across the Universe

#14

Post by rootbear »

A lot of what has been said here about software documentation and process is true of NASA flight projects, especially manned. Outside of flight, not so much. In some cases, it's a bit more like grad-school-project-that-escaped. An exception would be the modeling code used for things like weather simulation on supercomputers. The scientists need to know that their code actually matches the model they're testing and that things like numerical precision and error bounds are being handled properly. I'll add that the above is anecdotal, based on my experiences at NASA Goddard.

Re: The Loyal Engineers Steering NASA’s Voyager Probes Across the Universe

#15

Post by kzisme »

laydn wrote: post #4

You know, getting these electronics systems ready, sending out to deep space and communicating with these systems is an incredible feat. But, for me, another amazing thing about these long term projects is the sheer amount of knowledge that needs to be maintained and passed on to new people, over the course of several decades. To pull it off, this need of knowledge management and transfer must be so deeply engraved i…

I wish this sort of knowledge transfer happened in teams more often.

Even in a relatively small team >20 I have found that even simple communication or sharing of knowledge falls apart _Very_ quickly.

Re: The Loyal Engineers Steering NASA’s Voyager Probes Across the Universe

#16

Post by rootbear »

bitexploder wrote: post #2

There is so much cool stuff in this article. The engineers stuck in the 70s with modern tools to aid them, but that only gets them so far. The love and dedication to this spacecraft. These engineers believe in the mission of space so deeply they married themselves to Voyager. A marriage more substantial than many real marriages. Just thinking about this dedication and how space exploration is, in my opinion, one of t…

I love the Voyagers and I'm very happy that there are people dedicated to keeping us in contact with them as long as they last. These Engineers are splendid examples of taking the long view, something we could use more of these days.

Re: The Loyal Engineers Steering NASA’s Voyager Probes Across the Universe

#17

Post by wjnc »

rootbear wrote: post #16
bitexploder wrote: post #2

There is so much cool stuff in this article. The engineers stuck in the 70s with modern tools to aid them, but that only gets them so far. The love and dedication to this spacecraft. These engineers believe in the mission of space so deeply they married themselves to Voyager. A marriage more substantial than many real marriages. Just thinking about this dedication and how space exploration is, in my opinion, one of t…

I love the Voyagers and I'm very happy that there are people dedicated to keeping us in contact with them as long as they last. These Engineers are splendid examples of taking the long view, something we could use more of these days.

For me the article has a somewhat sad component (next to technological awesomeness):

"In retirement, Zottarelli told me, he would like to see Florida again. He wonders how it has changed. In his garage is a 1954 Swallow Doretti, a fixer-upper. ‘‘It probably needs new brakes,’’ he said. I asked him if there was anywhere he liked to drive for fun. ‘‘No,’’ he replied. ‘‘Not anymore.’’"

Imagine that's your grandfather. With his expertise, shouldn't he be able to 'see Florida twice a year'? I would have wished for a way to have both this awesome technological specialization over long stretches of time, but also given the people on the program some more time to go their own ways. And then the toll of being in the same hierarchy for 30+ years. Ack. But perhaps these people self-selected for stoicism, who am I to judge ;)

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