Voyager 1 is Back, Baby!

[George Thomas Wilson]

Voyager 1 is Back, Baby!

 

I just got word today that Voyager 1 is sending back science after several months of troubleshooting and repairs.  It had been sending back gibberish since November.  The engineers and scientists were able to “poke” it the right way and got a memory dump.  They located the problem and, last month, sent a patch and got it talking again.  They have now turned back on the instruments and this interstellar explorer is again pushing the boundary of our knowledge.

When the probe was repaired, it was 15.18 billion miles from the sun heading away at 11 miles per second.  That distance can also be stated as 163.3 Astronomical Units (AU), or the average distance from the earth to the sun.  Another unit of measure that can be used for that distance is light-time, or the amount of time it takes light to travel that distance.  Using light-time, it is a little over 22½ light-hours away.  It was launched September 5, 1977, or 46.7 years ago, and in another 2½ years it will be one light-day away.  Hopefully it will still be sending good science when it gets there.

 

Tom Wilson

[Scott T. Shier]

Tom ,

I LOVE this post/discussion "update" on our dear Voyager I, thank-you. I too, was also waiting on baited breath to learn what the progress (if any) and status was going to be. I do not want us to lose contact with our two VOYAGER spacecraft, sigh.

I have been following their progress consistently since I was in my teens. In honor of your post, I have used your image artwork as my PC desktop wallpaper today, and also, see my new thumbnail ID image  : - ) 

I have the deluxe Sounds of the Earth LP boxed set w/ book, postcards, and the CD/MP3 audio format of of the voices, sounds, messages, etc. that were so carefully selected back in the 1970's for these epic twins. 

have a good night, Tom. 

          -- Scott 

[George Thomas Wilson]

Thanks Scott,

I am hoping to, one day soon, write a decent post on the Voyager missions with a tie-in to the old National Geographic article on the "Grand Tour."

[Scott T. Shier]

Tom, I just changed my ID again as you were commenting, above  : - ) 

*(I almost was going to add that Aug-1970 NGM)

[George Thomas Wilson]

Sadly, Ed Stone, former head of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and head of the Voyager mission has passed away, just a month after his "child" was brought back to life.

[Scott T. Shier]

R.I.P.  

: - ( 

[George Thomas Wilson]

Happy Birthday Voyager 1!!!

It was launched 47 years ago today.

Voyager 2 is actually "older," being launched 2 weeks prior.

[Scott T. Shier]

Do you happen to know why that was? 

[George Thomas Wilson]

Voyager 2 was sent on a longer, slower arc to Jupiter.  Since it was due to arrive at Jupiter four months after Voyager 1, it made sense to name the first one launched, #2.  BTW, Voyager 2 reached Saturn, a whole year after Voyager 1.