Posted on 02/14/2015 5:10:04 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Explanation: On another Valentine's Day 25 years ago, cruising four billion miles from the Sun, the Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back one last time to make this first ever Solar System family portrait. The complete portrait is a 60 frame mosaic made from a vantage point 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane. In it, Voyager's wide angle camera frames sweep through the inner Solar System at the left, linking up with gas giant Neptune, the Solar System's outermost planet, at the far right. Positions for Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are indicated by letters, while the Sun is the bright spot near the center of the circle of frames. The inset frames for each of the planets are from Voyager's narrow field camera. Unseen in the portrait are Mercury, too close to the Sun to be detected, and Mars, unfortunately hidden by sunlight scattered in the camera's optical system. Closer to the Sun than Neptune at the time, small, faint Pluto's position was not covered.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: Voyager Project, NASA]
Pluto dissed, yet again!
I always love having Voyager 1 threads because of a special personal connection. My Dad was the team leader at GE that built the RTGs that power the spacecraft and are still working today. I remember lots of interesting discussions with Dad about the project and the incredible lengths they went to to make sure of safety during launch. Thanks for posting. I don’t recall seeing this mosaic before — pretty cool.
(Revisiting a recent "Valentine's Day" submission ;-)
Yes, alas.
Thanks, interesting story!
The technology is fascinating and not widely known. The RTGs are multi-hundred Watt electrical power generators using thermocouples heated by plutonium at 1,800 degrees F. They had a four year life; initial power rating at launch of 146 W per RTG; end of mission power rating of 108 W. First craft was launched in 1977 and the RTGs are still generating power almost 40 years later! They exceeded the design lifetime just a bit. ;>)
More info at :
http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/documents/fullText/ACC0165.pdf#page29
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