Voyager 1 has reached the heliosheath, which is the border area between the space of our solar system and interstellar space. It is the first space probe to do this, to directly measure what the astronomers had theorized. In a few more years, it will be the first man-made object to have flown into interstellar space.
By that time, Voyager 1 will be nearly 40 years old. It is projected to continue doing science for ten more years before it runs out of attitude control propellant and/or the radioisotope generator's output drops too low to be useful.
The five space probes that we have sent out on solar-escape trajectories may be humanity's most enduring legacies. All but one were launched in the 1970s.
(H/T)
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Monday, December 13, 2010
4 comments:
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We stand on the shoulders of giants. That generation won a great war, on two fronts. They modernized a nation, explored space and put men on the moon.
ReplyDeleteThe current generation is too winy to pay to fix pipes and roads and bridges, or educate our children. Not to mention advance any science of any kind.
The survivors will be able to look back on the ashes of our civilization and complain, "It was just too expensive!"
This still amazes me, that we could have built things so well that they can still send data from that far away.
ReplyDeleteNangleator, on the other side of the coin, space technology has evolved since then. We've sent orbital probes to most of the planets, including the MESSENGER spacecraft, which is on its way to Mercury. Cassini is doing astonishing work around Saturn. The Galileo spacecraft orbited Jupiter for years.
ReplyDeleteWe've sent orbiters, landers and rovers to Mars; the Opportunity rover is still doing science and is a month away from the seventh anniversary of its landing-- it was built to last 90 days. It's twin, the Spirit rover, got stuck and may have died, but it an for over six years.
The Soviets sent a number of orbiters and landers to Venus. Venus is incredibly hostile; very hot, atmospheric pressures of ninety times ours and an atmosphere of supercritical and highly corrosive carbon dioxide. The Soviet landers were designed to withstand that for 30 minutes and one survived for two hours.
Cujo, JPL deserves a lot of honor for the way they designed and built the Voyagers.
That's true, Comrade. I'm just grumpy lately.
ReplyDeleteVery impressed with any probe that can last in the vicinity of Jupiter. Also impressed with anyone that can navigate a probe in that gravity environment. Damnably complex, it is.