While the religious whackaloons have been stuffing themselves full of chicken sandwiches to show their support of Chick-fil-A's homophobic agenda, science has been busy.
In probably the longest-term space research project ever, the data is accumulating that Voyager 1 is about to enter interstellar space. This is a big deal, as we do not know what is out there, but we may be on the verge of finding out. In case you've forgotten, Voyager 1 was launched 25 years ago. Her and her sister probe, Voyager 2, were designed for flybys of Jupiter and Saturn, a three year trip for Voyager 1 and four years for Voyager 2.
Voyager 2 ended up in position for flybys of Uranus and Neptune. NASA had not designed her for that, thinking it to be too costly, but Voyager 2 accomplished those flybys and sent back the only close-up data of those two planets that we have.
Both probes are still sending back data from the far reaches of the Solar System.
And this week, NASA successfully landed a one-ton nuclear-powered mobile science lab on Mars. Whether or not Curiosity eventually gets stuck, like the Spirit rover, remains to be seen. But since it is powered by a plutonium nugget, Curiosity may be sending back data until into the second half of this century. (Spirit was solar-powered. It's 90-Martian day mission lasted for over three Martian years. Her twin, Opportunity, is still working and is approaching the fifth Martian anniversary of her landing.)
But hey, if you think that you're going to change the world by stuffing yourselves with fried chicken sandwiches, have at it. Science will still march on without you.
A blog by a "sucker" and a "loser" who served her country in the Navy.
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Slava Ukraini!
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
4 comments:
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Spirit and Opportunity landed in January of 2004; the latter is still working, 8 1/2+ years later. It's engineered lifespan was expected to be 90 days.
ReplyDeleteI was referring to Mars years, not Earth years.
DeleteEBM, I've been reading you since shortly after I started this blogging nonsense. This is very likely your most poignant and topically on the nail head post yet. It truly illustrates the dichotomy that exists between myth and reality.
ReplyDeleteLochwood... I miss your blog. Twitter just isn't so much my cup of tea.
No matter how you slice it, its amazing even when you fully understand how its done.
ReplyDeleteEck!