Voyager 1 Just Fired Up its Backup Thrusters for the 1st Time in 37 Years

Space.com ^ | Mike Wall

[BenLurkin]

Voyager 1 hadn't used its four "trajectory correction maneuver" (TCM) thrusters since November 1980, during the spacecraft's last planetary flyby — an epic encounter with Saturn. But mission team members fired them up again Tuesday (Nov. 28)...

The little engines passed the test with flying colors, NASA officials said.

"The Voyager team got more excited each time with each milestone in the thruster test," Todd Barber, a propulsion engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. "The mood was one of relief, joy and incredulity after witnessing these well-rested thrusters pick up the baton as if no time had passed at all."

As Barber's words suggest, the mission team didn’t do this out of idle curiosity. Voyager 1 — which in August 2012 became the first human-made object ever to enter interstellar space — has long been using its standard attitude-control thrusters to orient itself into the proper position to communicate with Earth. But the performance of these thrusters has been flagging for at least three years, so mission team members wanted to find an alternative option.

[mountn man]

I’m curious about “docking” maneuvers.

[blam]

"Amazing. Between Voyager and the Mars Rovers, we built some great stuff."

Solid state electronics is a major contributor.

[mountn man]

Oh bullshiite.

What???

Because she was married to Ryan?

[central_va]

What is that?

[Eddie01]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hy6EiiNUmA

[Cobra64]

“The Voyager team got more excited each time with each milestone in the thruster test,"

Me too. 😄

[NativeSon]

“These are not the Borg implants you are looking for, the ocular device is up here”

[SuperLuminal]

"Between Voyager and the Mars Rovers, we built some great stuff."

Yep! We can be darn proud of the many moslem contributions to NASA...

[piasa]

It wasn’t her choice that the divorce papers were released, from what I understand Obama pulled that off without consent.

[fedupjohn]

She bears a lot of responsibility for Obama becoming a Senator.

Yes she does, indeed!

[wally_bert]

Amazing what we can build without koranic guidance.

[TigersEye]

In the upper right of that pic it looks like a 4 cylinder truck engine attached to the dish.
Must be a strong dish!

[TigersEye]

Only in a world where cause and effect is turned on its head.

[Libloather]

At present, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is 21 billion kilometers from Earth, or about 141 times the distance between the Earth and Sun. It has, in fact, moved beyond our Solar System into interstellar space. However, we can still communicate with Voyager across that distance.

Oh, my.

[Terry L Smith]

Things still working, made by American hands, long before the Ghost of Obama wails .. ‘you didn’t build that!’

[N. Theknow]

Is this the spacecraft with a diagram of the solar system, showing which planet it came from, and also have drawings of a nude man and woman as inhabitants of this planet?

If aliens come across this thousands of years from now, what will they think?

Nice tits!

[BenLurkin]

[TheNext]

Hey guys. I just finished firing up the thrusters.

I am going to take a break. I will see you in 37 years.
Until then, bye.

[exit82]

If aliens come across this thousands of years from now, what will they think?

That we are too poor to buy clothes.

[BenLurkin]

You got a great union.