Voyager spacecraft nears exit of solar system

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Originally Posted by CyLoboClone

Hey Wesley- Today is a pretty good day, huh?

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9-2, baby. CFH has the team rolling. Oh, you mean, exiting the solar system. Yeah, it is a good day. On to the dark matter.

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Originally Posted by The_Architect

How is this thing being propelled still?

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It has picked up speed by slingshotting around some planets, but primarily it is inertia. An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force. We tend to forget that on earth since there are a lot of strong outside forces to deal with such as strong gravity and friction (both surface and air). These tend to decrease the momentum of the object quickly.

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Originally Posted by VeloClone

It has picked up speed by slingshotting around some planets, but primarily it is inertia. An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force. We tend to forget that on earth since there are a lot of strong outside forces to deal with such as strong gravity and friction (both surface and air). These tend to decrease the momentum of the object quickly.

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Thanks.

Is it going to actually exit the solar system? If so, I hope it gets in the exit lane early, and doesn't act like some of the d*$#heads I follow on 80/35 and wait for the last minute to move over.

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Originally Posted by jbhtexas

It might be more like 1980's technology from a consumer standpoint, as NASA/military technology often leads commercial technology by a decade or more. But still, impressive that (most) everything is still working. On the other hand, my 1981 Radio Shack LED alarm clock/radio is still going strong...

What suprises me the most is that it hasn't been smashed by a space rock in all that time. At the velocity stuff is traveling in space, it wouldn't take a very big piece of debris to wreak havoc...

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True but still impressive when you consider 80's technology. My cell phone has more computing power than the PCs people were buying then.
When you consider the vastness of space, I don't find it all that hard to believe that something this small could go all this time without getting hit by some piece of space debris.

And my Timex LED alarm clock that I bought in 1982 is still working.