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Voyager Set to Enter Interstellar Space

science.nasa.gov

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Re: Voyager Set to Enter Interstellar Space

#51

Post by ANH »

brudgers wrote: post #24
icehawk wrote: post #4

Voyager is a beautiful example of reliable code and engineering. 30 years and 10 billion miles out, and still functioning.

As an engineering approach to generating power, thermopiles are considered differently today than in the 1970's due to environmental and health risks associated with plutonium and the probability of a launch failure.

I agree with your assessment if you're talking about perception, not actual risk.

Shortly before Cassini was launched there were some people on my college campus protesting the mission on grounds of risk of radioactive debris spreading if the launch failed. Motivated by my distaste for fearmongering, I did some reading and found that nearly all the scholarly research and engineering studies suggested the risk was infinitesimal, and in a worst case scenario the spread of dangerous concentrations of radiation would be highly localized.

Aside: Bill Nye (himself a trained engineer) also uses his position as Executive Director of The Planetary Society to advocate for the use of nuclear power generators in deep space missions.

Re: Voyager Set to Enter Interstellar Space

#53

Post by brudgers »

ANH wrote: post #51
brudgers wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an engineering approach to generating power, thermopiles are considered differently today than in the 1970's due to environmental and health risks associated with plutonium and the probability of a launch failure.

I agree with your assessment if you're talking about perception, not actual risk. Shortly before Cassini was launched there were some people on my college campus protesting the mission on grounds of risk of radioactive debris spreading if the launch failed. Motivated by my distaste for fearmongering, I did some reading and found that nearly all the scholarly research and engineering studies suggested the risk was inf…

In light of recent events in Japan, engineering risk assessments regarding the hazards posed by industrial uses of plutonium are not exactly gospel. The fact that 3 of 4 failures of the Titan IV rocket occurred following Cassini's launch, the prelaunch engineering risk assessment for Cassini is likely to have underestimated it's risk in a similar manner.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Titan_launches]

Re: Voyager Set to Enter Interstellar Space

#54

Post by brudgers »

calebmpeterson wrote: post #31
brudgers wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Nothing like spending the better part of 50 years to go an incredible distance - a distance, which is so small in the grand scheme of things" 50 years is very short on a galactic scale as well.

True, and yet it's a good chunk of a lifetime for a human.

Until recently, 50 miles was a long distance for a human to travel.

Re: Voyager Set to Enter Interstellar Space

#55

Post by wladimir »

sigzero wrote: post #52
wladimir wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humanity, and everything that follows from it.

Once we are a "swarm" we will no long be human. I think that is a nightmare vision you have put for there.

Humanity is already a swarm. A swarm consists of individual animals that more or less coordinate to go in a certain direction (so this is different from a hive mind).

Also, it is 1000ths (or even millions) of years in the future I was talking about. Why would our current moral standards still hold?

Re: Voyager Set to Enter Interstellar Space

#56

Post by wil2k »

jaysonelliot wrote: post #10

It just so happens I was listening to some beautiful 1970s space music when I read this (Tangerine Dream, if you're interested). The dreams of exploration we had from the time of the first man in space through the 1980s were so wonderful and optimistic. I grew up reading OMNI and Discover, watching Carl Sagan on television and playing with toy Space Shuttles. When the Voyager left earth, we believed that man would wa…

I was just listening to "Space Night Earthviews" :D (A late night show in Germany combining great music and visuals. Can be found on YouTube.)

Re: Voyager Set to Enter Interstellar Space

#57

Post by wil2k »

Locke1689 wrote: post #36
shin_lao wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correction: laws of physics as we currently understand them For example, we still don't understand inertia and gravity. Nothing is impossible.

This is what I like to refer to as the "bias of computing." The idea is that we deal with so much scientific progress in our fields that we tend to think that scientific progress can take us anywhere and no restriction will stand up for long. However, this is a fallacy that really has no grounding in the laws of physics. What reason do we have for thinking that information can travel faster than the speed of light? M…

Well, things might be[come] possible if people like Burkhard Heim are correct with their theories and ideas.. :)

http://www.heim-theory.com/Content/Obituary_of_Burkhard_Heim...

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6990323/Burkhard-Heim-Take-a-Leap-...

www.mufon-ces.org/docs/heimphysics.pdf

Re: Voyager Set to Enter Interstellar Space

#58

Post by ceejayoz »

sigzero wrote: post #52
wladimir wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humanity, and everything that follows from it.

Once we are a "swarm" we will no long be human. I think that is a nightmare vision you have put for there.

If physical function is what makes us human, Stephen Hawking isn't much more human than a mind in a robot.

Re: Voyager Set to Enter Interstellar Space

#59

Post by jasongullickson »

jaysonelliot wrote: post #10

It just so happens I was listening to some beautiful 1970s space music when I read this (Tangerine Dream, if you're interested). The dreams of exploration we had from the time of the first man in space through the 1980s were so wonderful and optimistic. I grew up reading OMNI and Discover, watching Carl Sagan on television and playing with toy Space Shuttles. When the Voyager left earth, we believed that man would wa…

I was really depressed about the retirement of the Space Shuttle until I saw that SpaceX (http://www.spacex.com/) crew simulation demo video the other day.

Time for us to run with the baton for awhile folks.

Re: Voyager Set to Enter Interstellar Space

#60

Post by prawn »

coderdude wrote: post #46
reallyacow wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm personally waiting for V-GINY.

It must suck to create a new account, just to have your first comment failguy out and render your account useless. Won't the auto-kill feature just automatically deaden any future posts from this guy? Seems like a poor way to nurture possible good HNizens who make a mistake or two in the beginning. Technically he was only following the example of the V'Ger guy who isn't being downvoted.

V'Ger guy was being downvoted initially.
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