31–40 of 318 posts
It blows my mind that these are machines from the 8-track era. And they have fallbacks and redundancies that were completely ahead of their time.
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.
…but we’re very close. The next technique will be flying near the sun then deploying a solar sail for a huge speed boost. Voyager goes 3 AU/yr, solar sail boost with todays technology will enable 7-9 AU/yr.
Highly recommend watching Slava Turyshev discuss his work on an SGL telescope, which employs this technique.
https://www.youtube.com/live/lqzJewjZUkk?si=57VS4oqbaKEXmyOR
> scientists and engineers back on Earth have increasingly had to deal with age-related maintenance issues There is perhaps unintended irony in that sentence, but it does evoke some Asimov stories in which human characters age while supporting technology.
I like this quote: “We didn’t design them to last 30 years or 40 years, we designed them not to fail,” John Casani, Voyager project manager from 1975 to 1977, says in a NASA statement.
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.
> The Kurilpa Bridge is a multiple-mast, cable-stay structure based on principles of tensegrity producing a synergy between balanced tension and compression components to create a light structure which is incredibly strong.
In contrast, India's decision to rely on solar panels led vikram lander to be dead in just 14 days due to lack of sunlight (afaik).
I'm curious about the rationale behind this choice when nuclear power seems like a far superior option. Can someone shed light on this decision?
"NASA reconnected with Voyager 1 after a brief pause" (30.10.2024)
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?
(Edit) Another thought, since you mentioned time—numerical computing power and the math required to exercise it have advanced greatly since the 1970s, and it's likely that some of the trajectories and maneuvers feasible (again with the same fuel budget) today, even if they took 100+ years to complete, weren't even calculable back then.
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 ?
If we had something capable of getting to Voyager in a year that might be worthwhile, because it would stand a chance of getting somewhere interesting in a few decades. But we are absolutely nowhere near that level.
It's fascinating how Voyager 1, despite my lack of space knowledge, utilizes a nuclear power source for 40+ years, offering steady and reliable power without any moving parts that could degrade over time. In contrast, India's decision to rely on solar panels led vikram lander to be dead in just 14 days due to lack of sunlight (afaik). I'm curious about the rationale behind this choice when nuclear power seems like a…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
The alignment greatly reduced the amount of energy/propellant/weight to launch the Voyager missions with all four of the outer planets on the menu. Alignments that allow you to reach a smaller set of the outer planets with the same budget are more common: years or decades. (Edit) Another thought, since you mentioned time—numerical computing power and the math required to exercise it have advanced greatly since the 19…