Voyager 1 spacecraft thrusters fire up after decades idle

ambasite

Amazing stuff!:eek:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/voyager-1-spacecraft-thrusters-fire-up-after-decades-idle-1.3315654

Beeker

ambasite wrote: »

Amazing stuff!:eek:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/voyager-1-spacecraft-thrusters-fire-up-after-decades-idle-1.3315654

What amazing spacecraft's they are. They should last billions of years out in the void between the stars orbiting our galaxy and ultimately they may well be one of the last remnants of our species. A reminder of who we were and that we existed.
If you haven't seen the documentary "Farthest" I highly recommend it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6223974/

brownbinman

I think it's fascinating too. the wife is a teacher and I explained what happened. Showed her "The Farthest" and she brought it into school for kids.

Might get few of them thinking what can be done

mickmackey1

Voyager hogs the headlines but plenty more craft have been 'revived' after decades, such as the Pioneers -

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/missions/archive/pioneer.html

flaneur

I would guess that in interstellar space, they'll be unlikely to encounter anything that might hit them or irradiate them, so they could be there for many millions of years without any significant damage.

What always amazed me is that managed to get through various belts of debris and high radiation without any damage.

We'd be able to do some really amazing missions with current generation technology, if we could get the funding that Voyager had. The political environment in the US really limits what's possible compared to the peak of space science when it was trying to show off in science in the space race.

I still think those missions are just mind blowing in terms of what they've achieved.

JupiterKid

I think that it’s incredible that a) The two Voyagers are still functioning and b) that they are now in interstellar space.

Amazing.