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Voyager 1 breaks its silence with NASA via radio transmitter not used since 1981

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Voyager 1 breaks its silence with NASA via radio transmitter not used since 1981

#21

Post by avereveard »

jonplackett wrote: post #17

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.

They had lot less resources and knowledge to estimate the right amount of resilience for achieving the mission goals and erred on the side of cautions.

You can see something similar happening in bridges, weight per meter load has come down considerably since the 60s because material understanding is much more advanced and they meed less margin for the same safety factor.

Re: Voyager 1 breaks its silence with NASA via radio transmitter not used since 1981

#22

Post by timthorn »

jmclnx wrote: post #16
pupppet wrote: post #13

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 :)

Ah, yes - The Jupiter Effect: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3400930-the-jupiter-effe...

Re: Voyager 1 breaks its silence with NASA via radio transmitter not used since 1981

#23

Post by baq »

dnh44 wrote: post #11
rlpb wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I understand their speed mostly comes from gravity assists from Jupiter, so you'd have to wait for suitable orbital alignments and the basic technology for "much faster speed" doesn't exist.

I never actually knew that. My mental model for how this works was way off; I'll have to read more.

Play Kerbal Space Program (the original, not the sequel). You’ll become an orbital mechanics pro in a couple days.

Re: Voyager 1 breaks its silence with NASA via radio transmitter not used since 1981

#24

Post by gruturo »

metalman wrote: post #7

It's too bad this cant qualify as some sort of world record

We have to way to know it it's actually the fastest and farthest object: A 1957 nuclear test was conducted underground, but the scientists decided to cap the borehole with a sizable concrete and metal plug.

The nuclear explosion may or may not have caused said plug to reach space - the data from the cameras indicate it had at least 6 times the needed escape velocity, but it is difficult to estimate whether it would completely disintegrate or if enough of it would survive the atmosphere and whether it would "count"

https://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Plumbob.html (look for Pascal-B)

Re: Voyager 1 breaks its silence with NASA via radio transmitter not used since 1981

#25

Post by grapesodaaaaa »

pupppet wrote: post #13

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.

I’m trying to figure out why the alignment was so important.

Wouldn’t it be possible to get a gravity assist in any alignment - albeit just taking a little longer to ping-pong across the system?

Re: Voyager 1 breaks its silence with NASA via radio transmitter not used since 1981

#26

Post by kamma4434 »

jonplackett wrote: post #17

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…

Re: Voyager 1 breaks its silence with NASA via radio transmitter not used since 1981

#27

Post by plorg »

gruturo wrote: post #10
iamgopal wrote: post #3

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 ?

Yes, but mostly no, also no, and, frankly, why would we. Yes: we could lift off a much heavier spacecraft, give it plenty of fuel, and many of its parts would be lighter than their 1970s equivalent, giving us lots of room for modern sensors No: the "battery" in the old ones is nuclear and it's going to be difficult to beat that (but not impossible: a nuclear stirling engine, either powered by fission or by decay, e.g…

Just a small aside, are Stirling engines used on other spacecraft? The Wikipedia article suggests development was largely abandoned a decade ago. My first glance concern would be that because it's reliant on moving parts it is liable to fail sooner than a purely thermoelectric RTG (due to part wear, lubricant leaks, fatigue, etc). This would seem to be quite important on the timeline of a probe that is going to take a long time to reach the subject of its investigation.

Which, to your point, only works against the idea of hypothetical Voyager 3.

Re: Voyager 1 breaks its silence with NASA via radio transmitter not used since 1981

#28

Post by skissane »

rlpb wrote: post #6
iamgopal wrote: post #3

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 ?

As far as I understand their speed mostly comes from gravity assists from Jupiter, so you'd have to wait for suitable orbital alignments and the basic technology for "much faster speed" doesn't exist.

> and the basic technology for "much faster speed" doesn't exist.

Various forms of nuclear propulsion have been investigated. None of them are anywhere near ready for missions, but that seems to be more due to lack of investment in their development (and environmental/legal/regulatory/geopolitical/etc concerns) than any scientific obstacle. If NASA/etc were really serious about it (as in willing to spend multiple billions a year on it), it could probably be made to work in only a few years.

Re: Voyager 1 breaks its silence with NASA via radio transmitter not used since 1981

#30

Post by NikolaNovak »

iamgopal wrote: post #3

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 voyagers very easily. Whether our current technology coild be made more reliable in the long term is another good point of discussion :-)

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