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Voyager 1 passes milestone
Spaceflight Now ^ | 8/20/2006 | NASA/JPL

Posted on 08/21/2006 8:49:57 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity

Voyager 1, already the most distant human-made object in the cosmos, reached 100 astronomical units from the sun on Tuesday, August 15 at 5:13 p.m. Eastern time (2:13 p.m. Pacific time). That means the spacecraft, which launched nearly three decades ago, is 100 times more distant from the sun than Earth is.

In more common terms, Voyager 1 is about 15 billion kilometers (9.3 billion miles) from the sun. Dr. Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist and the former director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., says the Voyager team always predicted that the spacecraft would have enough power to last this long.

"But what you can't predict is that the spacecraft isn't going to wear out or break. Voyager 1 and 2 run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but they were built to last," Stone said. The spacecraft have really been put to the test during their nearly 30 years of space travel, flying by the outer planets, and enduring such challenges as the harsh radiation environment around Jupiter.

The spacecraft are traveling at a distance where the sun is but a bright point of light and solar energy is not an option for electrical power. The Voyagers owe their longevity to their nuclear power sources, called radioisotope thermoelectric generators, provided by the Department of Energy.

Voyager 1 is now at the outer edge of our solar system, in an area called the heliosheath, the zone where the sun's influence wanes. This region is the outer layer of the 'bubble' surrounding the sun, and no one knows how big this bubble actually is. Voyager 1 is literally venturing into the great unknown and is approaching interstellar space. Traveling at a speed of about one million miles per day, Voyager 1 could cross into interstellar space within the next 10 years.

"Interstellar space is filled with material ejected by explosions of nearby stars," Stone said. "Voyager 1 will be the first human-made object to cross into it."

Voyager Project Manager Ed Massey of JPL says the survival of the two spacecraft is a credit to the robust design of the spacecraft, and to the flight team, which is now down to only 10 people. "But it's these 10 people who are keeping these spacecraft alive. They're very dedicated. This is sort of a testament to them, that we could get all this done."

Between them, the two Voyagers have explored Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn and Neptune, along with dozens of their moons. In addition, they have been studying the solar wind, the stream of charged particles spewing from the sun at nearly a million miles per hour.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: jpl; nasa; space; voyager1
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To: Ignatz
They have

Alaska had several TEG units used to support "remote sensing stations" but people freaked out when they found out that they were "RADIOACTIVE".

Some Natives have blamed every stillbirth, ugly child or imaged ill on 'em.

They were pulled out in the early 90s.
61 posted on 08/22/2006 12:12:26 AM PDT by ASOC (The phrase "What if" or "If only" are for children.)
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To: boop

"Ok, I'm a Star Trek buff, but I don't remember when warp 10 was exceeded that one time. What happened? I remember when the Kelvans took over the Enterprise and it would take hundreds of years to reach Andromeda galaxy, and only their descendants would see it."

i think that was it, or maybe they refer to trans-warp drive. ST internal consistency is after-the-fact for so much of even new material, not to mention a 40-year old tv show, that it could be either?


62 posted on 08/22/2006 2:35:03 AM PDT by WoofDog123
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To: boop
I don't remember when warp 10 was exceeded that one time.

I don't either...I was thinking that it may have been related to the whole sling-shot-around-the-sun-time-travel-thing....but that has happened more than once.

I'll have to research this a bit.

63 posted on 08/22/2006 8:32:31 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Dawn of light...lying between a silence and sold sources...)
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To: COEXERJ145
Let's try that again...


64 posted on 08/22/2006 8:34:54 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Dawn of light...lying between a silence and sold sources...)
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To: boop
In the last episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the upgraded Enterprise goes to (IIRC) "Warp 13".

The way this was explained is that the warp scale had simply been recalibrated.

65 posted on 08/22/2006 8:41:25 AM PDT by COEXERJ145 (Free Republic is Currently Suffering a Pandemic of “Bush Derangement Syndrome.”)
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To: COEXERJ145
"I'll settle for a green, Orion slave girl."

I'd hit it!
66 posted on 08/22/2006 8:45:49 AM PDT by GunnyHartman (The DNC, misunderestimating Dubya's strategery since 2000.)
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To: ChadGore

One thing that separates us from DU is humor like this! Nicely done!


67 posted on 08/22/2006 8:55:20 AM PDT by IGOTMINE
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity


68 posted on 08/22/2006 9:07:54 AM PDT by DoctorMichael (A wall first. A wall now.)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
That's a very interesting chart. It conflicts with something I recall reading a long time ago. What I remember reading is that speed = c * wf^3. This was probably in the "starfleet technical manual" that was sold 30 years ago.
69 posted on 08/22/2006 7:24:05 PM PDT by free_at_jsl.com
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To: keithtoo
There are actual milestones 9.3 Billion miles from the sun? Do they have them every mile?

The Romans put them there on their way to Andromeda. ;)

70 posted on 08/22/2006 7:32:51 PM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: cogitator; Cyber Liberty; patton

distant ping .............


71 posted on 08/22/2006 7:41:57 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but Hillary's ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: IGOTMINE

"One thing that separates us from DU is humor like this! Nicely done!"

hurumphh!  - Not a word about my Burma Shave poem in post 36, - and mine was more apropo, too, even if it didn't have pretty pictures!  Great poets are so often underappreciated.  Perhaps, a more robust poem would draw accolades:

There once was a girl from ...

Oh, nevermind.  I'd just have to explain it to the DU trolls.

;^D

72 posted on 08/22/2006 8:09:31 PM PDT by RebelTex (Help cure diseases: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1548372/posts)
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To: All

Bttt


73 posted on 08/22/2006 8:54:07 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican (Everyone that doesn't like what America and President Bush has done for Iraq can all go to HELL)
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