Australian Politics Forum - Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system

tallowood Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 5817	Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system Reply #15 - Dec 18^th, 2010 at 8:33pm Diagram of the journey this far.
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Bobby. Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 103100 Melbourne Gender:	Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system Reply #16 - Dec 18^th, 2010 at 10:15pm NASA. Quote: 2020 when Voyager 1 will be more than 13 billion miles from Earth and may have reached interstellar space. I just did another quick calculation: This will give a radio transmission time of : 1 day , 2 hours and 40 minutes. A reply with commands would take twice that time!
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muso

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Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system
Reply #17 - Dec 18^th, 2010 at 10:30pm

Bobby. wrote on Dec 18^th, 2010 at 10:15pm:

NASA.
Quote:

2020 when Voyager 1 will be more than 13 billion miles from Earth and may have reached interstellar space.

I just did another quick calculation:
This will give a radio transmission time of :
1 day , 2 hours and 40 minutes.

A reply with commands would take twice that time!

It's pretty amazing that the equipment has lasted that long considering that it was launched in 1977, 33 years ago.

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Bobby. Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 103100 Melbourne Gender:	Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system Reply #18 - Dec 18^th, 2010 at 10:33pm muso. Quote: It's pretty amazing that the equipment has lasted that long considering that it was launched in 1977, 33 years ago. I agree. It shows how advanced the technology was in the 70s. I wonder what microwave device they use for transmitting?
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It_is_the_Darkness

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Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system
Reply #19 - Dec 18^th, 2010 at 11:04pm

Thats e'fin impressive stuff Tallowood. Cool

I think the Voyagers were built simply like the old cars that you could fix with a hammer.
These days they make cars to have all sorts of complicated and costly problems and for what? A car is a car - my oldies could tough it out in a Valiant - so why can't I without the cons.

I think the Voyagers breaking the Heliosphere (the last boundary?) is the greatest moment of their entire voyage. Such mystery, such awe-inspiring occassion.

...I think something really special and unexpected will happen not long after the Heliosphere is passed. I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck bristle at the thought.

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vegitamite Ex Member	Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system Reply #20 - Dec 19^th, 2010 at 8:46am Excitingly I just brought my eldest son the Book Voyager for christmas. I even stop myself from over peeking inside.
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Bobby.

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Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system
Reply #21 - Dec 19^th, 2010 at 9:10am

Beyond Voyager 1 -

I think we should be making a very large space telescope with a mirror
big enough to resolve planets.
See link:
http://rayvillard.com/articles/Beyond_hubble.pdf

If we could prove that earth like planets were around nearby stars then
an interstellar mission would find more encouragement.
The closest star is 4.2 light years away.
If we could make a spacecraft go 10% of the speed of light then a robot
mission would take 42 years to get there.
It could then transmit data back to earth which would take 4.2 years.
We could therefore have results in about 46 years.

Still - accelerating a space craft to 10% of C is beyond us right now.
It's a project that will happen when we get the technology one day -
maybe in the next 100 years.

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It_is_the_Darkness Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 4000 in a ReTardis Gender:	Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system Reply #22 - Dec 19^th, 2010 at 12:11pm I don't think humanity will get to find, let alone live on another 'life-bearing' world/planetoid ...until we get our shi t sorted here. Look around, we can't even 'live' on this planet.
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tallowood

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Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system
Reply #23 - Dec 19^th, 2010 at 12:29pm

Bobby. wrote on Dec 18^th, 2010 at 10:33pm:

...
I wonder what microwave device they use for transmitting?

Quote:

Uplink communications is via S-band (16-bits/sec command rate) while an X-band transmitter provides downlink telemetry at 160 bits/sec normally and 1.4 kbps for playback of high-rate plasma wave data. All data are transmitted from and received at the spacecraft via the 3.7 meter high-gain antenna

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/index.html

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tallowood

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Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system
Reply #24 - Dec 19^th, 2010 at 12:33pm

Bobby. wrote on Dec 19^th, 2010 at 9:10am:

Beyond Voyager 1 -

I think we should be making a very large space telescope with a mirror
big enough to resolve planets.
See link:
http://rayvillard.com/articles/Beyond_hubble.pdf
...

Quote:

If the sun's gravity could be used to create a giant telescope, people could send and receive intensely magnified signals that could allow us to call an alien civilization, some researchers propose.

According to Einstein's general relativity, the sun's behemoth mass warps space-time around it, which actually bends light rays passing by like a giant lens. If a detector was placed at the right focal distance to collect the light, the resulting image would be extremely magnified.

The only catch is, the nearest focal point is about 550 times the distance between the Earth and the sun.

Nonetheless, eventually harnessing this power might enable Earth to view distant objects, communicate with interstellar probes, and even contact aliens, scientists say. The technique could be applied to optical light, or longer-wavelength light in the radio spectrum, for example.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40731890/ns/technology_and_science-space/

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Bobby.

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Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system
Reply #25 - Dec 19^th, 2010 at 9:00pm

tallowood wrote on Dec 19^th, 2010 at 12:29pm:

Bobby. wrote on Dec 18^th, 2010 at 10:33pm:

...
I wonder what microwave device they use for transmitting?

Quote:

Uplink communications is via S-band (16-bits/sec command rate) while an X-band transmitter provides downlink telemetry at 160 bits/sec normally and 1.4 kbps for playback of high-rate plasma wave data. All data are transmitted from and received at the spacecraft via the 3.7 meter high-gain antenna

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/index.html

That didn't tell me the answer but it helped me find this:
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/science/thirty.html

6. Configure the RF subsystem for the BML mission by establishing X-high power for all BML downlink operations if the prime
X-band traveling wave tube (TWT)
is operating on Voyager 1 and either X-band TWT is operating on Voyager 2. Because of the previous TWT switch on Voyager 1, X-Hi is maintained only if the current prime TWT is operating. If the current prime TWT fails and a switch to the backup TWT is made, X-Lo will be used for telemetry transmission.

How can they make the TWT so reliable for that length of time?

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tallowood Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 5817	Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system Reply #26 - Dec 19^th, 2010 at 9:07pm Bobby. wrote on Dec 19^th, 2010 at 9:00pm: ... How can they make the TWT so reliable for that length of time? I guess by simplicity of the design and the use of hi quality materials, but it is only my HO.
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Bobby.

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Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system
Reply #27 - Dec 19^th, 2010 at 9:34pm

tallowood wrote on Dec 19^th, 2010 at 9:07pm:

Bobby. wrote on Dec 19^th, 2010 at 9:00pm:

...
How can they make the TWT so reliable for that length of time?

I guess by simplicity of the design and the use of hi quality materials, but it is only my HO.

It's still amazing.
There is a heater used at the cathode which could burn out.
That's just one problem out of dozens.
NASA really had access to incredible technology for the 1970s.

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NorthOfNorth Gold Member Offline OzPolitic Posts: 17258 Gender:	Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system Reply #28 - Dec 19^th, 2010 at 9:36pm I wonder how far away Jesus would be now? Sure, he had a near 2000 year head start, but at what velocity? One for it_is_the_light, I reckon.
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Bobby. Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 103100 Melbourne Gender:	Re: Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system Reply #29 - Dec 19^th, 2010 at 9:43pm NorthOfNorth wrote on Dec 19^th, 2010 at 9:36pm: I wonder how far away Jesus would be now? Sure, he had a near 2000 year head start, but at what velocity? One for it_is_the_light, I reckon. You haven't understand the message of Light: Jesus never left us - he is with us always.
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