It continues to irritate me that There aren't any other functioning deep space probes besides New Horizons (launched in 2006, and which flies at a slower speed than Voyagers). One new operating deep space probe in nearly 50 years is just embarrassing. I mean yay space telescopes and everything, but we seem to have given up anything that isn't a state-of-the-art prestige project. I was hopeful about projects like Breakthrough starshot but that seems to have stalled: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot
NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating
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Re: NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating
#32It continues to irritate me that There aren't any other functioning deep space probes besides New Horizons (launched in 2006, and which flies at a slower speed than Voyagers). One new operating deep space probe in nearly 50 years is just embarrassing. I mean yay space telescopes and everything, but we seem to have given up anything that isn't a state-of-the-art prestige project. I was hopeful about projects like Brea…
The voyagers had a planetary alignment working for them
Re: NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating
#33I hope the voyagers can last longer. We are trapped on Earth, but it is just fascinating (and relieving) thinking of them expanding the boundary of human's space adventure.
Re: NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
An old timer once told me about how he would read his printouts, make new punch cards, send them over to the main office, someone would put the new cards into the system the next morning, and then read the printouts on the day after that to see if his code worked or not.
This. Except worse, during busy days you had to stand on line for an hour or more for a turn on the machines. I believe the skill of debugging by mentally stepping through a program's execution came from such long run times, a useful skill many younger programmers lack.
> a useful skill many younger programmers lack.
Because it’s unnecessary.
It’s not a difficult skill.
When folks are in that situation, they tend to adapt quickly to their reality. But that’s not the reality for the vast majority of developers today.
Thankfully.
Re: NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating
#35It continues to irritate me that There aren't any other functioning deep space probes besides New Horizons (launched in 2006, and which flies at a slower speed than Voyagers). One new operating deep space probe in nearly 50 years is just embarrassing. I mean yay space telescopes and everything, but we seem to have given up anything that isn't a state-of-the-art prestige project. I was hopeful about projects like Brea…
Isn't a big part of the problem that the voyager slingshot is one of the best you can get, and it's a once in multiple-lifetimes event?
Even if we launch a new deep space probe as best we can they're gonna be real slow?
Re: NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating
#36Can we send faster better equipped craft to move past solar system in a year or two ?
The planetary alignment that allowed the Voyager probes to move so fast only occurs every 175 years. Even with this advantage it took them 12 years to get to Neptune. So the short answer is no.
But without the planetary alignment, can't we just rely on brute force ? Better fuel and bigger engines?
Re: NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating
#37It continues to irritate me that There aren't any other functioning deep space probes besides New Horizons (launched in 2006, and which flies at a slower speed than Voyagers). One new operating deep space probe in nearly 50 years is just embarrassing. I mean yay space telescopes and everything, but we seem to have given up anything that isn't a state-of-the-art prestige project. I was hopeful about projects like Brea…
What else are you looking to see from such deep space? Nothing we launch will ever reach anything anything interesting in probably the life of humanity. Just to get to Pluto in our life times meant going so fast that it could only fly by. Maybe flying around in the Oort cloud might, unlikely though, be interesting.
Re: NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating
#38It continues to irritate me that There aren't any other functioning deep space probes besides New Horizons (launched in 2006, and which flies at a slower speed than Voyagers). One new operating deep space probe in nearly 50 years is just embarrassing. I mean yay space telescopes and everything, but we seem to have given up anything that isn't a state-of-the-art prestige project. I was hopeful about projects like Brea…
Isn't a big part of the problem that the voyager slingshot is one of the best you can get, and it's a once in multiple-lifetimes event? Even if we launch a new deep space probe as best we can they're gonna be real slow?
New Horizons is faster than Voyagers and did not require an alignment.
Re: NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating
#39Ideally, just how much longer can the crafts keep going even with the "Big Bang" fix, given the old hardware that they carry?
Re: NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't a big part of the problem that the voyager slingshot is one of the best you can get, and it's a once in multiple-lifetimes event? Even if we launch a new deep space probe as best we can they're gonna be real slow?
New Horizons is faster than Voyagers and did not require an alignment.
It was launched faster but the final speed is slower - it'll never catch up.