Are there examples of modern projects with this level of attention to detail and longevity? The team that worked on this have one hell of a legacy.
47-year-old Voyager 1 fired up thrusters it hasn't used in decades
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Re: 47-year-old Voyager 1 fired up thrusters it hasn't used in decades
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
About 680 thousand puffs so far (40 x 365 x 47). Also, "When the team initially switched Voyager over to the trajectory correction thrusters six years ago, the tube opening was 0.01 inches (0.25 millimeters) across".
$ qalc > 100 kg / 680e3 approx. 147.06 mg Each puff would be (Not sure what the USA weight unit is, stones or something? DDG says that's 0.000024 stones)
Probably ounces ("oz") for something like this, so around 0.005 oz then. The original 100 kg is equivalent to 220.5 lbs (which is pronounced "pounds", of course).
Re: 47-year-old Voyager 1 fired up thrusters it hasn't used in decades
#53You can agree with me or not, but Voyager 1/2 is a top technological achievement of the humankind. A piece of hardware so good that it survived working correctly 47 years in a hostile environment, driven by a computer with the power of modern car key. Amazing.
>driven by a computer with the power of modern car key
I appreciate the sentiment, but perhaps it is the car key which is impressive here...
Re: 47-year-old Voyager 1 fired up thrusters it hasn't used in decades
#54You can agree with me or not, but Voyager 1/2 is a top technological achievement of the humankind. A piece of hardware so good that it survived working correctly 47 years in a hostile environment, driven by a computer with the power of modern car key. Amazing.
>driven by a computer with the power of modern car key I appreciate the sentiment, but perhaps it is the car key which is impressive here...
Not necessarily. The car key seems inevitable in retrospect. Both Voyagers have had decades of opportunities for something to go irreparably wrong. Let's see if that car key will still be functional in 50 years, and then pass judgement.
Re: 47-year-old Voyager 1 fired up thrusters it hasn't used in decades
#55Re: 47-year-old Voyager 1 fired up thrusters it hasn't used in decades
#56[deleted]
Re: 47-year-old Voyager 1 fired up thrusters it hasn't used in decades
#57You can agree with me or not, but Voyager 1/2 is a top technological achievement of the humankind. A piece of hardware so good that it survived working correctly 47 years in a hostile environment, driven by a computer with the power of modern car key. Amazing.
It took a rather embarrassing amount of time before I realised you weren't saying "Voyager Half".
Re: 47-year-old Voyager 1 fired up thrusters it hasn't used in decades
#58Re: 47-year-old Voyager 1 fired up thrusters it hasn't used in decades
#59Does anyone know what the reference points are for the rotation manoeuvres? The text does not provide any information on how the probe knows that it is off. It needs some kind of reference, no?
Re: 47-year-old Voyager 1 fired up thrusters it hasn't used in decades
#60Are there examples of modern projects with this level of attention to detail and longevity? The team that worked on this have one hell of a legacy.
Well "modern" and "longevity" are kinda at odds with each other, so it may depend on where you choose your arbitrary cut-off point, but I'd say OpenBSD could be one such example. They do sometimes drop support for architectures (RIP VAX), but that usually happens when the last such box in question physically dies. Otherwise they've maintained their bi-yearly release cycle and kept the system small, clean, robust, and secure for what's now decades.
http://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20160309192510
Also, they are the upstream project for OpenSSH, which is among the most ubiquitous pieces of software on the planet. (Consider supporting them: https://openbsd.org/donations.html)