Voyager 1 is likely dead

[NorthCyd]

With the ability to launch from earth with conventional combustion (rocket booster) technology and then employ ion engines to continually accelerate (admittedly very slowly), a small craft mission that will take years to leave the solar system could be traveling at quite high rates of speed by the time it leaves the solar system.

Conceptual design for a twin ion engine spacecraft.

 

[VeloClone]

Conceptual design for a twin ion engine spacecraft.

Just something you whipped up, I suppose.



Here's mine:

 

[NorthCyd]

Just something you whipped up, I suppose.



Here's mine:

Thats more advanced than mine.

 

[VeloClone]

Thats more advanced than mine.

Yours is still great, being smaller it is more efficient. Mine is designed to carry a larger cargo so it has to be a bit bigger and more complex.

 

[Kinch]

Next generation spacecraft:

 

[VeloClone]

Next generation spacecraft:

*more technologically advanced than Mercury capsule...

 

[Alswelk]

So the whole "engineering archaeology on technology from the 70s that its builders didn't expect to live this long" hits a little close to home. Pretty sure the designers of the machine I work on would faint if they knew it was still functioning, more or less in its original configuration, ~50 years later. Lots of decisions (undocumented of course) appear to have been made with a 10-year or so lifespan in mind.

We, at least, have the advantage of being mere meters away from our problem child (although one certainly couldn't get close enough to touch anything, at least not for long), instead of literally across the solar system!

 

[CloneIce]

Aliens resuscitated it, clearly. If it starts heading back to Earth, watch The Signal on Netflix.

What is amazing to me is we built a craft an eternity ago in technological terms that is unbelievably still working (ish) and communicating back to Earth from unimaginable distances... but we still can't get a lander to hit feet-first on the moon.

Not trying to minimize the extreme amount of work and science to land something on the moon, just a recognition of how little space exploration has advanced over the past 50 years relative to other things.

What do you mean we can’t get a lander to hit feet first on the moon? We have landed many on Mars successfully as well as the moon.

The recent landing on the moon was not a NASA project so it should be evaluated accordingly. Also, it’s harder to land things on other solar bodies than many understand.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

There's still hope

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/nasa-figured-why-voyager-1-153000469.html

 

[Sigmapolis]

So the whole "engineering archaeology on technology from the 70s that its builders didn't expect to live this long" hits a little close to home. Pretty sure the designers of the machine I work on would faint if they knew it was still functioning, more or less in its original configuration, ~50 years later. Lots of decisions (undocumented of course) appear to have been made with a 10-year or so lifespan in mind.

We, at least, have the advantage of being mere meters away from our problem child (although one certainly couldn't get close enough to touch anything, at least not for long), instead of literally across the solar system!

What most people think fighter jets from 50 years ago look like...



What they actually look like...

 

[Pope]

So the whole "engineering archaeology on technology from the 70s that its builders didn't expect to live this long" hits a little close to home. Pretty sure the designers of the machine I work on would faint if they knew it was still functioning, more or less in its original configuration, ~50 years later. Lots of decisions (undocumented of course) appear to have been made with a 10-year or so lifespan in mind.

We, at least, have the advantage of being mere meters away from our problem child (although one certainly couldn't get close enough to touch anything, at least not for long), instead of literally across the solar system!

I think about this every time I board a commercial jet that would be old enough to drink if it were human.

 

[Cytasticlone]

It's aliiiiive!

 

[ozone]

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

 

[Turn2]

NASA hasn't said it officially, but the part of the spacecraft that functions most like a "computer" (it is too old to have a "CPU") is still sending meaningless data, and months after this started happening, NASA's engineers have not been able to fix it.

Part of the problem is that this is the first still-going mission where every single one of the original engineers who designed the mission has died. This guy, in the video below, coined an excellent term, that I believe should catch on, called "spacecraft archeology". That is basically what NASA's current engineers have had to engage in, because they have literally nobody to talk to who was involved in designing the mission.



BTW, this guy's videos are excellent, if you can get past his deep accent. He is very underrated as a YouTube science content creator.

Not so fast my friends. Kudos to @Cytasticlone for beating me.

 

[Cyclonsin]

Not so fast my friends. Kudos to @Cytasticlone for beating me.

View attachment 128104

That picture makes me unreasonably happy.

 

[Turn2]

That picture makes me unreasonably happy.

It must be incredibly gratifying when your worksite isn't only invisible, but millions of miles away, and suddenly it graces you with a decipherable bump.

 

[isurokz]

It's back. Voyager 1 now sending good data back to earth. All is well.

 

[cydsho]

What most people think fighter jets from 50 years ago look like...

View attachment 127031

What they actually look like...

View attachment 127032

Is the thread reminding everyone how old they are? I think when I was a kid 50 year old fighting aircraft were just coming out of the bi-plane era.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

Voyager 1 is about 15 billion miles away from Earth. Talk about the little engine that could.

 

[Letterkenny]

Voyager 1 is about 15 billion miles away from Earth. Talk about the little engine that could.

It takes 22.5 hours for a signal to reach Voyager 1 from earth, and 22.5 hours to return.

Still a faster response time than I get from my wife when I need something urgent.