Voyager 2 glitch

Beeker

Slight glitch on Voyager 2

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1005/11voyager2/

What amazing spacecrafts Voyager 1 & 2 are. Launched in 1977 they are both still working away at the far edges of the solar system. I remember the begining of these missions as a young Beeker:D

peterako

Me to

Back in the days when packet handbooks were all the rage and my friends had their soccor (pick your sport) I had my 'Unmanned Space Flight' book...proudly featuring Voyager(s) and other such hi-tech

Those were the days...when Engineering was ENGINEERING!

Kevster

I wasn't even born back then, but both Voyager 1 and 2 have to go down as two of the greatest missions of all time. I would loved to have been around when the first visible spectrum images of the outer planets were revealed by the Voyagers.

We must remember too that these are just going to continue travelling out of our solar system and beyond. We will lose contact, but the mere thought that they'll be out there and might one day 'see' another star-system up close is quite exciting!

... ...would loved to have hitched a ride :rolleyes:

Kevin

djhaxman

Kevster wrote: »

I wasn't even born back then, but both Voyager 1 and 2 have to go down as two of the greatest missions of all time. I would loved to have been around when the first visible spectrum images of the outer planets were revealed by the Voyagers.

We must remember too that these are just going to continue travelling out of our solar system and beyond. We will lose contact, but the mere thought that they'll be out there and might one day 'see' another star-system up close is quite exciting!

... ...would loved to have hitched a ride :rolleyes:

Kevin

Bet you they end up in the Smithsonian when future generations have ships fast enough to go out in the morning, pick them up and have them back by lunchtime

BULLER

Kevster wrote: »

We must remember too that these are just going to continue travelling out of our solar system and beyond. We will lose contact, but the mere thought that they'll be out there and might one day 'see' another star-system up close is quite exciting!

... ...would loved to have hitched a ride :rolleyes:

Kevin

You'd be waiting a long time!! :P A few millions years outta do it, although I do believe it passes nearly a light year away from another solar system in about 40,000years....
They're incredible machines!

Beeker

And dont forget our message to the Stars on board. One of Carl Sagans great legacies:)

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

ynotdu

Kevster wrote: »

I wasn't even born back then, but both Voyager 1 and 2 have to go down as two of the greatest missions of all time. I would loved to have been around when the first visible spectrum images of the outer planets were revealed by the Voyagers.

We must remember too that these are just going to continue travelling out of our solar system and beyond. We will lose contact, but the mere thought that they'll be out there and might one day 'see' another star-system up close is quite exciting!

... ...would loved to have hitched a ride :rolleyes:

Kevin

Hi Kevin,I see the date of Your post! erm sorry i have been OBSESSED following STS-132:)
You must be into serious study/exam time now,best of luck!

Don't mind those other posters,It was in one of the Star Trek Movies that Voyager returned to Earth as Vger looking for it's creator with the sexy baldy lady as its manifestation,Some lucky guy got to mind melt with her and Enterprise Saved the Earth again!

Beekers plaque is a dissappointment:( I thought it was the Voyagers that brought the pictures of Naked people and directions to our 'pale blue dot' as well as a CD of sounds and greetings from Planet Earth{something Hawkings in his recent show on Discovery reckons Humankind might live to regret:eek:}

So if it was not Voyager that brought what i am talking about into infinity what craft was it folks

Kevster

I wish I had more time to follow these closing shuttle missions but - as you've guessed - I'm very busy. I don't have exams though dude, as there are no exams for PhD students! However, after only 4 months I might be getting my name in a research article already.

How many more missions are there? - 3? Atlantis is on it's last voyage - I know that.

Kevin

ynotdu

Kevster wrote: »

I wish I had more time to follow these closing shuttle missions but - as you've guessed - I'm very busy. I don't have exams though dude, as there are no exams for PhD students! However, after only 4 months I might be getting my name in a research article already.

How many more missions are there? - 3? Atlantis is on it's last voyage - I know that.

Kevin

Two,possibly three Kev.
All going well 133 and 134{currently the last one}before end of 2010

a possible 135 with a four man crew that if given the go ahead NASA want to launch in July 2011.

I cannot figure how they will manage a launch July 2011.
Their skilled staff are not going to hang around knowing they will have no job,if an offer comes along for a new job how could they say no

NASA Admin Bolden(a snake IMO) is against it, those in favour have said they need to know by end of June 2010.

I can only guess that some form of new job with leave of absence built in by presidential decree or whatever will be needed to extend it until then?

Who knows?

ar'nt You the clever one who prefers the long term unmanned probes and have the patience:)

glad the studying is going so well!:)

ynotdu

NASA Fixes Bug On Voyager 2

File image.by Staff Writers
Moscow, Russia (RIA Novosti) May 25, 2010
NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft has resumed sending science data from deep space after engineers fixed a bug that had garbled the information it was sending back to Earth, a leading project scientist said on Monday.
"The science data format is working," Edward Stone told RIA Novosti.
The science data coming from Voyager 2 had been unintelligible since April, but last week engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California figured out what was causing the problem - one bit in the memory of the [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]computer[/COLOR][/COLOR] that formats the data to transmit it to Earth had flipped from a zero to a one - and reset the [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]system[/COLOR][/COLOR].
After three days of monitoring the engineering data to ensure the fix was successful, the command to restart science data transmission was sent to the spacecraft on Saturday. It takes nearly 13 hours for a radio signal traveling at the speed of light to reach the [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]spacecraft[/COLOR][/COLOR] from Earth, and another 13 hours to receive an answer, so scientists began receiving the science data on Sunday.
However, the data gathered while the system was not working has been lost.
"During the last month, the spacecraft was transmitting engineering data, but there is no capability for on-board storage of the 160 bps cruise science data," Stone said.
Stone said that the scientists would not know whether there was a transient event even when they analyzed the Voyager 2 data, but they would be able to see if there was a significant change compared with before the data outage.
"However, there has been little solar activity over the last several years, so it is unlikely there were any significant transients," he added. The Voyager 2 spacecraft is a twin of Voyager 1. It has been operating through the Solar System since August 20, 1977. First, Voyager 2 was exploring Jupiter and Saturn, later it flew to explore Uranus and Neptune and then it headed into interstellar space.

ynotdu

Found the answear to My own question as to which spaceprobe carried pictures of naked people and directions to Earth!
It was Pioneer F,AKA Pioneer 10.Launched on the 3rd of March 1972.



Symbolism of the Plaque
"The Pioneer F spacecraft, destined to be the first human made object to escape from the solar system into interstellar space, carries this pictorial plaque. It is designed to show scientifically educated inhabitants of some other star system, who might intercept it millions of years from now, when Pioneer was launched, from where, and by what kind of beings (With the hope that they would not invade Earth). The design is etched into a 6 inch by 9 inch gold-anodized aluminum plate, attached to the spacecraft's attenna support struts in a position to help shield it from erosion by interstellar dust. The radiating lines at left represents the positions of 14 pulsars, a cosmic source of radio energy, arranged to indicate our sun as the home star of our civilization. The "1-" symbols at the ends of the lines are binary numbers that represent the frequencies of these pulsars at the time of launch of Pioneer F relative of that to the hydrogen atom shown at the upper left with a "1" unity symbol. The hydrogen atom is thus used as a "universal clock," and the regular decrease in the frequencies of the pulsars will enable another civilization to determine the time that has elapsed since Pioneer F was launched. The hydrogen is also used as a "universal yardstick" for sizing the human figures and outline of the spacecraft shown on the right. The hydrogen wavelength, about 8 inches, multiplied by the binary number representing "8" shown next to the woman gives her height, 64 inches. The figures represent the type of creature that created Pioneer. The man's hand is raised in a gesture of good will. Across the bottom are the planets, ranging outward from the Sun, with the spacecraft trajectory arching away from Earth, passing Mars, and swinging by Jupiter

lord lucan

No wonder we haven't been visited by aliens,one look at that pic would put them right off!:p

chem

What kind of info would Voyager 2, be sending back now? Would it be along the lines of "its cold and dark here"? Is it running on battery life now or it it still solar powered?

Thanks.

Beeker

chem wrote: »

What kind of info would Voyager 2, be sending back now? Would it be along the lines of "its cold and dark here"? Is it running on battery life now or it it still solar powered?

Thanks.

Way too far from the Sun for solar. The Voyagers are nuclear powered. Electrical power is supplied by three Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs). There were protests before launch by people who feared a rocket failure could cause contamination. This was never a problem as the RTG's were protected against this event.