Posted on 03/05/2025 12:02:18 PM PST by Red Badger
When NASA was relevant. I hope one day again.
a continuing American astrophysics and engineering tour de force. kudos to all those who made it.
Fun fact: The solar heliosphere has been renamed to the Heliosphere of America.
My bother-in-law worked for JPL on one of the Voyagers in its first years. He later became the team leader on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO for short). That vehicle has also gone long over its expected mission life. The information returned from these projects is amazing.
Indeed NASA and JPL can do some truly great scientific work. MRO not only mapped the surfance of Mars in detail, it has gone many seasons and observed the growth and recession of the ice-caps and erosion on the surface. It also has allowed the newer and smaller surface rovers to operate beyond their service lives by compressing and relaying their data that they would otherwise not have the power to transmit.
Make NASA Great Again. MAGA!
“Biden appointed federal judge orders NASA to restart scientific sensors on Voyager 1 and 2”
I wonder if the code is written in Assembly
Impressive hardware from the pre-DEI era.
ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, Utah (KUTV) — A trailer carrying thousands of pounds of shredded cheese split open after the semi-truck hauling it tipped over near the entrance to Arches National Park in Grand County, spilling its contents across the roadway.
Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Cameron Roden said the semi, traveling southbound on US-191, veered off the road for an unknown reason around 6 a.m., striking two light poles. The trailer tipped over upon impact and spilled shredded cheese across the highway.
All southbound lanes were closed while two tow trucks worked to remove the semi from the scene. Northbound traffic was reduced to one lane while southbound traffic was being detoured into the median.
Sgt. Roden noted that the driver’s injuries appeared to be minor, but both light poles were damaged and would require repairs.
Lane restrictions and possible height restrictions will remain in effect near milepost 130 until further notice. No other details were immediately available.
OOPS!
Wrong Thread!
assembly language
The Voyager spacecraft computers are interrupt driven computer, similar to processors used in general purpose computers with a few special instructions for increased efficiency. The programming is a form of assembly language.
Frequently Asked Questions - NASA Science
NASA Science (.gov)
Yep, it is!
I had the incredible fortune of taking a SYS/360 assembler class where the professor was a retired JPL engineer. He was the team lead for Voyager's software reliability oversight.
Maybe they’ll find signs of ET incoming...
That would be more interesting than interstellar dust.
“...that they would otherwise not have the power to transmit.”
Interesting.
“”The Voyager spacecraft have far surpassed their original mission””
The understatement of all understatements ever.
Both Voyagers have the longest running computers ever. The computer has the equivalent of the 8-track tape. Besides the everyday, incredible performance of both spacecraft, the Earthbound staff are amazing. The spacecraft are 15 billion miles away.
Below is a link to many of the articles/podcasts about the Voyagers from Behindtheblack.com, one of my favorite sources for all things space, aerospace, rocketry etc, from a definitely real, science-based person.
https://search.brave.com/search?q=voyager+behindtheblack.com&source=web
bttt
“exemplary engineering that had gone into the Voyagers - nearly 50 years ago”
The miracle is, both Voyagers were able to sneak thru - unnoticed by - the Van Allen Alien Spacecraft Field.
Someone beat me to it...
(Going from memory here):
The Martian Rovers were really pretty small. They needed to be large enough to be stable while moving and with equipment extended, but small enough to be landed softly enough not to break. There solar panel arrays are not large either.
It was determined to not equip the rovers with transmitters that could routinely transmit to Eafth, but rather they would send compressed messages to MRO each time it passed over them in its orbit. MRO would then relay the compressed message to Earth with its own powerful transmitter. MRO has been very frugal with its propellant and has plenty energy remaining to change orbit as needed and to transmit messages almost indefinitely (within the reasonable lifetimes of the surface rovers.) MRO was launched about 20 years ago.
This stuff is pretty cool, really.
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