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Voyager 2 is back online after eight months of radio silence

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Re: Voyager 2 is back online after eight months of radio silence

#41

Post by curryst »

dirktheman wrote: post #23
ponker wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't even spin something 350 times before launching it out of the solar system?

If the actuator broke down the 351st time, would you've commented 'they didn't even spin something 400 times...'? What would be a number you'd be comfortable with instead?

I would have thought they would run every part until it died so they know roughly what it's lifespan is. It's good if the parts lifespan is twice as long as you need. However, it's even better if you could make it four times the amount you think you need, as long as it isn't horribly expensive.

I would tend to assume they've thought of that though, and stuck with this part for reasons. Maybe there werent other space-ready alternatives or something.

Re: Voyager 2 is back online after eight months of radio silence

#42

Post by Someone »

jacobush wrote: post #35
mkl wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was a 1993 PC demo, not C64. I had to mess with my config.sys and autoexec.bat to get it to run, but watched it repeatedly.

Yeah but that demo was later re-created on the C64, arguably the C64 version is better. :-D

For those who don’t know about these demos:

- http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=63 (PC; page has link to source code)

- http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=1216 (C64)

Re: Voyager 2 is back online after eight months of radio silence

#43

Post by Anarch157a »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #10
wst_ wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found out that usually happens when you have some constraints. The more constraints the more clever ways people find to achieve their goal.

It makes me think of the demoscene, that is doing things like getting 3D graphics on the Commodore or whatever it was.

Watch the 8088MPH demo on youtube, then read how it was done [0], it's absolutelly insane what you can extract from an IBM PC 5150.

[0] https://trixter.oldskool.org/2015/04/07/8088-mph-we-break-al...

Re: Voyager 2 is back online after eight months of radio silence

#44

Post by arbitrage »

pvaldes wrote: post #32

Lets imagine... hypothetically [1] that we could design a new kind of space oriented machines, sort of a "spatial server" or a "telephone repeater", that could be left in Pluto (or an asteroid, or orbiting Saturn, whatever...), and be designed to take this weak signals, amplify it, and resend it to the earth Would this help to increase the range of what discover can report and... hum, discover? Would help us to have…

That's exactly how the Soviets pulled off the geopolitical coup of broadcasting images from the dark side of the moon back to earth. They pulled it off first, because they were clever about it.

What you are proposing will absolutely work. Imagine a self-routing datagram trying to get closer to its destination at each step. In fact, that's exactly how the Internet is designed. Self-healing, self-routing, best-effort. Chop messages up into little pieces, and send them off to their destination, and hope for the best that they'll be reassembled correctly at the destination.

Re: Voyager 2 is back online after eight months of radio silence

#45

Post by Hnrobert42 »

frank2 wrote: post #40
rmu09 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Accelerated simulation of the effects of years in the vacuum and temperature of outer space on lubricants is non-trivial.

But a duplicate of the actuator failed in a lab on Earth after almost exactly as many turns as the actuator in space lasted -- that's how they determined the cause of the spacecraft's going offline.

True, but that confirmed the test run in space, not the other way around. It may have be hard to know in advance if 348 failures on Earth is representative of space, especially because it wouldn’t just be that one system. It would have been lots of parts built in to system working together.

Re: Voyager 2 is back online after eight months of radio silence

#46

Post by abhayhegde »

brazzy wrote: post #5
onion2k wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our hacks are nothing compared to the hacks of these old school nasa programmers :) The amazing thing (to me) is that they developed the Voyager spacecraft in an era when space flight wasn't hugely popular and the budgets at NASA were being cut regularly. NASA went from a peak of $6bn a year in the mid-sixties under Johnson to almost half that under Ford and Nixon. The engineers were well-respected and they clearly f…

It's great, but hardly amazing. Most academic research is done by underpaid PhD and postdoc students for the love of science, and most of that is far less glamorous than SPACE.

I believe the aspect of beauty and glamor is a matter of taste and hence very subjective. Maybe some projects may turn out to be less influential, but nevertheless it appeals to a particular community.

Re: Voyager 2 is back online after eight months of radio silence

#47

Post by Hnrobert42 »

m4rtink wrote: post #17
jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out Hardtack Teak. It was an exo-atmospheric nuclear test above Johnston Atoll. The blast was visible from Honolulu and a large glowing red cloud drifted over the island chain all the way from Johnston Atoll. There are areas of the zone underneath the explosion which are still hot to this day. And that was just one of the tests that went right. There were plenty of failures too, both in atmosphere and on the la…

Well, you don't necessarily need to launch from Earth - starting an Orion mission from say high lunar orbit should be perfectly safe.

At risk of contaminating future lunar bases.

Re: Voyager 2 is back online after eight months of radio silence

#48

Post by secondcoming »

pvaldes wrote: post #32

Lets imagine... hypothetically [1] that we could design a new kind of space oriented machines, sort of a "spatial server" or a "telephone repeater", that could be left in Pluto (or an asteroid, or orbiting Saturn, whatever...), and be designed to take this weak signals, amplify it, and resend it to the earth Would this help to increase the range of what discover can report and... hum, discover? Would help us to have…

Interplanetary Internet [0]

When I first heard about the Deep Space Network I thought it was something like this, and not a bunch of dishes on Earth.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_Internet

Re: Voyager 2 is back online after eight months of radio silence

#50

Post by secondcoming »

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #47
m4rtink wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you don't necessarily need to launch from Earth - starting an Orion mission from say high lunar orbit should be perfectly safe.

At risk of contaminating future lunar bases.

I'm pretty sure the moon is already being bombarded with all sorts of nasty radiation.
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