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Voyager 1 on the edge of forever....

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    #2
    CivilServant
    Registered Users Posts: 2,005 ✭✭✭CivilServant


    That's cool. Makes me feel insignificant again! lol :)

    Reading the article it says it won't reach another system for 40,000 years. I take it there is no propulsion on voyager 1? If someone were to build a self contained self regenerating engine, the acceleration is probably exponential or logarithmic. So if someone could build one, could easily catch up to voyager 1 in no time. Just an after thought.

    How far away in light years is the nearest solar system?


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    #3
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    Proxima Centauri is the next nearest star but its only one part of a three star system. There is'nt any hard evidence of planets going round it. But thats 4.2 light years away. The edge of the solar sytem is less than a light day away!!

    http://homepage.sunrise.ch/homepage/schatzer/Alpha-Centauri.html

    Voyager is nuclear powered.

    Mike.


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    #4
    irishgeo
    Registered Users Posts: 9,507 ✭✭✭irishgeo


    What about voyager 2?


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    #5
    CivilServant
    Registered Users Posts: 2,005 ✭✭✭CivilServant


    So how fast is voyager 1 & 2 travelling? How does the nuclear engine work? How long will it last for? /end neo rant. I need stats people! :)


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    #6
    daveirl
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,483 ✭✭✭✭daveirl


    This post has been deleted.


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    #7
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/ThePioneers.html
    for everything Pioneer 10 and 11 :)

    Mike.


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    #8
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 91,758 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Originally posted by CivilServant
    That's cool. Makes me feel insignificant again! lol :)

    Reading the article it says it won't reach another system for 40,000 years. I take it there is no propulsion on voyager 1? If someone were to build a self contained self regenerating engine, the acceleration is probably exponential or logarithmic. So if someone could build one, could easily catch up to voyager 1 in no time. Just an after thought.

    How far away in light years is the nearest solar system?

    Propulsion in a vacuum is kinda dependent on reaction mass (solar sails only really any use near stars) so it CAN'T be self contained, the self regenerating part can be supplied by any Type B perputal motion machine, and it wouldn't be logaritmic or exponential 'cos it's limited by the speed of light....

    =====================

    The speed depends on the number of gravity assists amongst other things - also many of the probes were used to investigate the moons and that determined thier trajectories.


    BTW: They use Nuclear power to generate electricity ..


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    #9
    albertw
    Closed Accounts Posts: 395 ✭✭albertw


    Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight (solar sails only really any use near stars)

    You can use sails though. Interstellar designs have been described using sails, however they require that a powerful laser/maser be constructed to push the sail on its way. Such a laser would be placed in orbit around the sun or mercury. I'll did up the references when I get back to work.

    Also of interest:
    "To Mars by A-Bomb: The Secret History of Project Orion", Wednesday, 23.25, BBC2.
    Basiclly Orion (and Daedalus) drops a nuclear bomb behind it then coasts along on the shockwave produced by the blast.

    Cheers,
    ~Al
    --
    www.irishastronomy.org


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    #10
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 91,758 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Solar sails.. If you rely on the Sun you will get pushed out of the solar system before you can build up a lot of speed (a coronal mass ejection might get you to 500,000m/s - but we can't predict them far enough ahead and there is the slight problem or radiation)
    - yes you can use a laser - but using present technology only within the solar system.
    http://www.asi.org/adb/04/03/02/laser-com.html
    Beam Divergence after telescope 3.33 microradians
    http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEhelp/ApolloLaser.html
    At the Moon's surface the beam is roughly four miles wide
    Note: the large surface area of a solar sail might allow it to slow down when it reached it's destination - some schemes have a second smaller sail being sent back by reflected light from the main one...

    AFAIR Daedalus was to use antimatter so not practical quite yet.

    Orion - a lot of research is still classified - cos they needed lots of small cheap a-bombs. But you still need to carry the reaction mass and it would more or less be limited to jaunting around the solar system. - but at least you aren't limited to Hoffman transfer trajectories.

    Have not looked at "Pluto Express" lately..

    The best way would of course be an interstellar ramjet - using a magnetic scoop to gather monotomic Hydrogen etc. and have a fussion reactor setup a bit like an afterburner. Again not something you can get from Argos (yet).


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