141–150 of 318 posts
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There's no way that a disaster on a manned mission would affect a satellite launch. They share nothing in common.
I’m not sure that level of confidence is warranted. What’s going to happen with NASAs funding over the next few years? Or even SpaceX?
I didn’t realize the Voyagers relied on a once in a 175 year planetary alignment. What a lucky break technology had advanced to the point we could make use of it.
It wasn't just a lucky break, it was the result of furious efforts by scientists to lobby years in advance to take advantage of the alignment, as well as engineers who repurposed two Mariner probes to save money, as well as canny NASA bureaucrats who sneakily downplayed the possibility of a full Grand Tour in order to reduce estimated costs (with the full intent to underpromise and overdeliver, which Voyager 2 succes…
"The last time that {alignment} happened was when Thomas Jefferson was President, and he blew it."
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> this is HN, a bunch of computer programmers think they know more than And they are correct At least on the programming part, having in mind the huge advances in computers since the Voyager was built. Any professional computer programmer here knows more in their field than a programmer from 70's. A Voyager built today with similar resources would be much better, 100% guaranteed. Voyager 1 was a fantastic machine don…
The longevity of Voyager has only a little to do with software engineering, and latest software engineering has even less to do with building spacecraft like Voyager.
Why? The first step today would be installing Discord[1], the second step would be updating code live 420 no scope[2], and the third step would be figuring out how many JavaScript abstractions are desired.
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I’m not sure that level of confidence is warranted. What’s going to happen with NASAs funding over the next few years? Or even SpaceX?
NASA will be sold to friends like they privatized the Soviet economy.
Were engineers 50 years ago just much smarter than we are now? It’s pretty unbelievable that these things still work. Or is there something systemic about how they were able to achieve so much so long ago with basically no computers to help.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> this is HN, a bunch of computer programmers think they know more than And they are correct At least on the programming part, having in mind the huge advances in computers since the Voyager was built. Any professional computer programmer here knows more in their field than a programmer from 70's. A Voyager built today with similar resources would be much better, 100% guaranteed. Voyager 1 was a fantastic machine don…
But this is about the overall engineering of Voyager, not just the programming. Also, I'm skeptical how much better modern hardware will fare in deep space conditions, considering the use of finer and more fragile electronics. Since you're talking about general people instead of specialists, also consider how the median software developer seem to focus less on correctness, reliability, and optimization, compared to t…
Why? Deep space radiation is only 4x the dosage compared to LEO. Starlink satellites use modern tech and they've spent >10,000 collective years in space since we launched more than 2 of them. The whole "modern electronics are more fragile" issue is overblown. The CPUs are tiny and easy to shield. The MMICs use huge features that you can see with a normal microscope.
Can we send a voyager 3 with much advance battery and sensor, and at much faster speed so that it may reach farther than voyager 1 and 2, in let’s say just couple of years ?
My understanding is that 1. Our rocket / propulsion technology today may be cheaper (thx largely to SpaceX), but it doesn't really necessarily provide MUCH more delta V. Meanwhile 2. Voyager launches relied on a once-in-a-blue-moon (not quite once in two centuries) alignment of various planetary bodies to give a spectacular orbital slingshot boosts. So my limited understanding is that we can't really overtake voyager…
I didn’t realize the Voyagers relied on a once in a 175 year planetary alignment. What a lucky break technology had advanced to the point we could make use of it.
And I remember the "crazies" saying the world will come to an end due to that alignment. That belief was reported in the main stream media. When it did not happen, I think they moved on to 2012 :)
Were engineers 50 years ago just much smarter than we are now? It’s pretty unbelievable that these things still work. Or is there something systemic about how they were able to achieve so much so long ago with basically no computers to help.
Golden NASA budgets might have helped…