Voyager-1 now returning science data from all working instruments
Engineers have now resumed full science operations on Voyager-1, presently more 15 billion miles from Earth, after computer issues shut the spacecraft down in November 2023.
The team partially resolved the issue in April when they prompted the spacecraft to begin returning engineering data, which includes information about the health and status of the spacecraft. On May 19, the mission team executed the second step of that repair process and beamed a command to the spacecraft to begin returning science data. Two of the four science instruments returned to their normal operating modes immediately. Two other instruments required some additional work, but now, all four are returning usable science data.
The four instruments study plasma waves, magnetic fields, and particles. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the only spacecraft to directly sample interstellar space, which is the region outside the heliosphere — the protective bubble of magnetic fields and solar wind created by the Sun.
Voyager-2 is 12 billion miles from Earth. Both spacecraft are using what are the longest continously running computers ever built, having been turned on 47 years ago. Both spacecraft however do not have much longer to live, despite the recent fixes. The nuclear power source for both no longer provides enough power to run all their instruments, and will run down completely sometime in 2026, as expected, when operations will finally cease.
The spacecraft however will continue to fly out into interstellar space. In 40,000 years or so Voyager-1 will get within 1.6 light years of the star Gliese 445 in the constellation Camelopardalis, while at the same time Voyager 2 will pass 1.7 light-years from the star Ross 248 in the constellation Andromeda.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Engineers have now resumed full science operations on Voyager-1, presently more 15 billion miles from Earth, after computer issues shut the spacecraft down in November 2023.
The team partially resolved the issue in April when they prompted the spacecraft to begin returning engineering data, which includes information about the health and status of the spacecraft. On May 19, the mission team executed the second step of that repair process and beamed a command to the spacecraft to begin returning science data. Two of the four science instruments returned to their normal operating modes immediately. Two other instruments required some additional work, but now, all four are returning usable science data.
The four instruments study plasma waves, magnetic fields, and particles. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the only spacecraft to directly sample interstellar space, which is the region outside the heliosphere — the protective bubble of magnetic fields and solar wind created by the Sun.
Voyager-2 is 12 billion miles from Earth. Both spacecraft are using what are the longest continously running computers ever built, having been turned on 47 years ago. Both spacecraft however do not have much longer to live, despite the recent fixes. The nuclear power source for both no longer provides enough power to run all their instruments, and will run down completely sometime in 2026, as expected, when operations will finally cease.
The spacecraft however will continue to fly out into interstellar space. In 40,000 years or so Voyager-1 will get within 1.6 light years of the star Gliese 445 in the constellation Camelopardalis, while at the same time Voyager 2 will pass 1.7 light-years from the star Ross 248 in the constellation Andromeda.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
We need to do this soon. https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/3
GeorgeC,
Elon says Starship will reduce the cost of getting stuff into orbit to a few dollars a kg, that SpaceX will soon be building a Starship a day, and that each Starship will fly several times each week.
If those numbers become reality, we’ll soon see telescopes in space larger than any surface based telescopes existing or planned. Then high resolution direct imaging of extrasolar plants will happen at an enormous rate.