After nearly half a century in deep space, every ping from Voyager 1 is a bonus

It is almost half a century since Voyager 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on a mission to study Jupiter, Saturn, and the atmosphere of Titan. It continues to send data back to Earth. Although engineers reckon that the aging spacecraft might survive well into the 2030s before eventually passing out of range of the …

[blu3b3rry]

I never fail to be impressed

Year after year, these probes are still going. Every time they appear in the news I do tend to wonder if they have finally lost power, and am amazed to find they still communicate and still just about work.

I know the mission was only supposed to last five years, but it's not easy to find how long anyone actually expected either probe to last. Certainly no-one could have predicted a near-on 48 year lifespan.

[stiine]

Re: I never fail to be impressed

Except for some bold Star Trek writers...

[that one in the corner]

Re: I never fail to be impressed

Well, that scenario did include a refueling stop and a couple(!) of tweaks to the craft by helpful passers-by, not really something that was planned for...

[Naich]

Re: I never fail to be impressed

Somewhat better than Musky's typical 48 second lifespan missions.

[The Dogs Meevonks]

Re: I never fail to be impressed

Is that all it takes for him to make his deposit for his latest genetic abomination?

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Re: I never fail to be impressed

Amazing pieces of engineering. I watched their launches on TV, and followed their early exploits in National Geographic Magazine. It is amazing they are still out there, gathering data, using every last scrap of energy.

[Doctor Syntax]

"We knew that if you filled up to brimming point the spacecraft with all the fuel it ever needed, it'd be OK," recalled Hunt. "We did. But we never told anybody."

The power of the fair accompi and a gift to future decades of science.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm glad that in this episode of "engineers vs accountants" the engineers won for once.

And we still benefit from it, decades later.

[Anonymous Coward]

Lets see if they survive 3 more years of theocracy.

[Pascal Monett]

Theocracy ?

More like idiocracy IMO.

[Remurkable1]

Re: Theocracy ?

Kakistocracy, if you please.

[JK63]

To be fair, the accountants didn't fully take over sometime in the 1980s which was captured so well with Gordon Gekko and "Greed, for lack of a better word, is Good".

[A Non e-mouse]

It is easier to ask for forgiveness than to seek permission.

[trindflo]

I don't think that was slipped under the radar. It was a joke at JPL that the voyager mission was actually to transport fuel to the end of the solar system. Obviously it was the right thing to do.

[jake]

It was definately slipped past management ...

... at least until after launch.

The "jokes" started only after word got out a couple days into Voyager 1's mission, during the PM for the Titan's LR-91 second stage's premature engine cut-out and the subsequent Centaur stage's extended burn to make up for it. The math for moving mass around never lies.

[Winkypop]

The inspiration continues

May the science continue.

[Brave Coward]

The only question left being...

... will it finally reach the 'We apologize for the inconvenience' signpost - and take a good picture of it?

[DS999]

Re: The only question left being...

No. Because just past the sign is the boundary of the simulation.

[Rivalroger]

Re: The only question left being...

Galactic coordinate ZZ 9 Plural Z Alpha

[Gene Cash]

We couldn't do it again

This country went from landing on the Moon to "This bag is not a toy!" and arguing about evolution in 40 years. This makes me very sad.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: We couldn't do it again

Given the political landscape at the time (pre Roe vs Wade, fascist rocket engineers, negligible LGBTQ++ BIPOC rights, intelligence overreach) the timing is probably perfect for a second try at a moon landing.

[Abbas]

Re: We couldn't do it again

NAZI engineers, not fascist ones. The latter would have been useless.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: We couldn't do it again

Nazis are fascists

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

Re: We couldn't do it again

As non US of A, on the other side of the pond, I had to search... https://web.archive.org/web/20040509204727/http://depts.washington.edu/hiprc/practices/topic/suffocation/legislation.html

Same stupidity why cars need "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" in United States, Canada, Nepal, India, and South Korea...

But hey, at least everyone knows the earth is round and that USA really landed people on the moon.

[herman]

Re: We couldn't do it again

Well a uniquely stupid Britainski thing is “Mind the gap! Mind the gap!”

[Giles C]

Re: We couldn't do it again

Not just Britain

There are equivalents in a lot of countries where there is a height difference or a curved platform which happens a lot on the underground.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_the_gap

[Richard 12]

Re: We couldn't do it again

It's a really, really big gap.

At Bank it is wider than a foot in places - up to 375mm - because of the tight curve.

If you're a tourist used to train platforms being straight like the vast majority of places, it's very easy to step into the gap by mistake.

[stiine]

Re: We couldn't do it again

Not more than once, I suspect. So are the signs truly necessary?

[I could be a dog really]

Re: We couldn't do it again

Well not more than once for any individual - but when you have an endless stream of new people (a.k.a. tourists and visitors) then yes you do need the warnings.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: We couldn't do it again

No, The Gap and its dreadful clothes & practices is a US institution and has pleasingly vanished from the UK High Street.

[blu3b3rry]

Re: We couldn't do it again

Thank you for confirming you don't understand how it works.

[Greybearded old scrote]

Re: We couldn't do it again

Ever visited Niagara? Only the American side needs to have signs informing you that it is illegal to try to go over the falls.

[LBJsPNS]

Every dessicant package says "Do Not Eat..."

...because you know some genius bought a product and said "Hello, what's this? A crunchy snack!"

[Jamesit]

Re: Every dessicant package says "Do Not Eat..."

Here's your sign!

[Joe Gurman]

Re: We couldn't do it again

Guess what? The this bag warning labels predate Apollo 11.

[Grunchy]

Re: We couldn't do it again

“Couldn’t land on the moon again,” could too. The how-to knowledge is completely known.

Including… the knowledge that there’s ZERO reason to land on the moon, other than LOLs.

[midgepad]

reasons

There's still some science, we evolved on Earth and still went to look at the bits of it we don't live on.

There's also interest. Apes like new views.

[I could be a dog really]

Re: We couldn't do it again

I don't think we could - but would love to be proven wrong.

Back then, and I recall being clued to the old B&W TV at the time, there was a "can do" attitude.

These days, there's a can't do attitude that prevails everything. "You can't do that because [insert hobby horse cause du jour]" and with so many disparate groups, all with their own reasons why you can't do something, then everything gets bogged down in solving the supposed problems and not actually getting on and doing it. For example, just look at how long it takes to get from "lets build a new nuclear power station" to "right, that's all the objections dealt with, lets get on and do it" - literally can be measured in decades.

[Martin J Hooper]

Let;s hope it doewsn't come back after meeting the Borg...

[ThatOne]

Let's hope for the best, but...

> the aging spacecraft might survive well into the 2030s before eventually passing out of range of the Deep Space Network

That's assuming the DSN isn't DOGEd out of existence. The NASA budget is shrinking, and we can expect that soon some clueless businesscritter will get appointed as administrator, and he'll claim we don't need all those old, huge, expensive antennas, we have Starlink now (or some similar stroke of genius)... The race to the bottom has only just begun. :-(

[trindflo]

Re: Let's hope for the best, but...

Let's hope science survives cynical polititians and industrialists.

That said, I think the DSN technologically has stretched how far we can communicate with voyager about as far as it can go. It is somewhat amazing what they've done.

Just as an example of the challenge: at ~15E09 miles away, Voyager 1 is almost an entire light day away. At the speed of light, it takes nearly a full day for a command to reach Voyager.

Assuming you would like to see an answer back, it will be another full day for the response to arrive.

Loss of signal will cause things to reset.

While all of this is going on, the earth is turning. One DSN station cannot maintain the link as it will be facing away from voyager for most of the day.

The link must be passed, phase continuously, between the 3 DSN stations in order to communicate.

And the rotating earth adds a doppler shift to the frequency Voyager receives, making the handover even more interesting.

[stiine]

Re: Let's hope for the best, but...

That would be an interesting topic for an article.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Let's hope for the best, but...

> and he'll claim we don't need all those old, huge, expensive antennas,

which an associate will get a contract to cut up for scrap.

[DJO]

Re: Let's hope for the best, but...

Fortunately only one, Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in Barstow, California is located in the USA. The ones in Spain and Oz are reasonably safe from american bean counters.

[I could be a dog really]

Re: Let's hope for the best, but...

But are they funded independently of the US ? If not, then "US cuts funding" == "site loses funding" == (usually) "site closes"

[Excused Boots]

"Voyager 1 could have performed the same Grand Tour as Voyager 2, and would have if disaster had befallen the latter at or soon after launch. However, it was Voyager 2 that swung past Uranus and Neptune, while Voyager 1 took a trip past Titan before finally heading away from the planets.”

I believe it was the other way round, close observation of Titan was considered more important. Voyager 2 was launched first because it was put on a longer trajectory to encounter the outer planets, Voyager 1 was launched two weeks later but on a shorter trajectory and overtook its sister after three months. To make a close encounter with Titan, it was necessary to fly over Saturn’s south pole and so out of the ecliptic plane and precluded visiting Uranus and Neptune. Had something happened to it to prevent observation of Titan, it was possible to redirect Voyager 2 to do so, but pass on the opportunity to visit the outer planets. Luckily this wasn’t needed.

[IvyKing]

Favorite Voyager 2 memory

Was in 1989 when spending an afternoon at the Rueben H Fleet Space Theater watching live reception of images of Neptune. Seeing images of Pluto would be a bit more than a quarter of a century later.

[jake]

Re: Favorite Voyager 2 memory

I was in the big auditorium at Moffett Field. It was only about half full, but we had a couple astronauts and folks who were involved with the Voyager Program as speakers between images arriving and being projected on the big screen. Was a fun event, in a geeky kind of way. I believe The Stanford Dish was being used for reception at the time, but I could be misremembering.

[DarkwavePunk]

When this launched...

I wasn't quite a one year old. Groovy science for most of my life.

[Gary Stewart]

What goes out, must come in

V'ger will return! It's just going to take a while.

[DarkwavePunk]

Re: What goes out, must come in

Pretty sure it has escape velocity from our solar system. Very big numbers even if you believe in the Big Crunch. Not that it matters. It still has about 800 years traverse the fucking Oort Cloud. Space is big. (Insert Douglas Adams quote here)

[Gary Stewart]

Re: What goes out, must come in

Missed the reference? I thought V'ger was a dead giveaway. Sure it wasn't a very good movie but it was only the first attempt after a long sleep. The second is considered a classic. Who could ever forget KHANNNNNN!!!!!!

[tsuch]

Re: What goes out, must come in

Estimated 30,000 years to emerge from the Oort Cloud. Space is *really* big, even just in our neighborhood!

[Jonathan Richards 1]

Re: What goes out, must come in

Yeah, I know. It's a really long way to the chemist.

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: What goes out, must come in

I brought some peanuts!

[Ken Shabby]

Re: What goes out, must come in

Launched before people got allergies

[Mitoo Bobsworth]

I think NASA got their money's worth.

As the saying goes - 'They sure don't make 'em like they used to.'

[stiine]

Re: I think NASA got their money's worth.

Components. American components, Russian Components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!

- Lev Andropov (Armageddon)

[Anonymous Coward]

Last transmission

"Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast"…

[Potemkine!]

What data are still sent to Earth by both Voyagers ?

[jake]

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/where-are-voyager-1-and-voyager-2-now/

If you scroll down a bit, you'll be able to see the status of the instrumentation.

[Gene Cash]

That's a hell of a well-done page. More info in one screen than JIRA or confluence could do in 30 pages.

[Potemkine!]

Perfect, thank you !

[Jonathan Richards 1]

The Voyager Interstellar Mission

The Voyagers are now engaged on VIM, the status page for which is at https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/where-are-voyager-1-and-voyager-2-now/. The short and vague answer to your question is that there are three science instruments still working on each craft, but not the same ones in all cases.

[Tubz]

Voyager 1 OS will outlive Windows OS and have been far more useful in human evolution.

[that one in the corner]

Get what you mean, but:

> been far more useful in human evolution

Pretty sure all the radioactives on the Voyagers went safely with them and won't affect our evolution.

Windows, on the other hand, is a toxic heap that has probably caused the premature removal of genes from the pool (via mechanisms such as self-defenestration: "No, no, I won't admin your office full of Win ME boxes, I'll take the less painful route - aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh").

['s water music]

> Voyager 1 OS will outlive Windows OS

Might be a close-run thing between the Voyagers and Liza Minnelli and I'm not sure who to cheer for

[The Dogs Meevonks]

In a world of planned obsolescence....

It's refreshing to see that the technology designed and built in the 1960's and 70's has proven to be reliable and had a longevity that today's tech industry would decry as ridiculous and unprofitable.

I wasn't even born when they launched, but I remember reading about them and seeing the images on TV in the late 80's and every time they come up in an article, I pour over the whole thing absorbing every scrap of information I can... They've fascinated me for 40yrs, and the day they have both signed off for the final time... I shall probably shed a tear over the incredible job they and the engineers who designed them and kept them running for 50yrs... I don't think I'll be around for when they return as V-Ger

[tsuch]

Re: In a world of planned obsolescence....

We can get equally reliable technology in the 2020s - if we're willing to pay for it, as NASA/JPL was willing to do in the 1970s. Voyager was not built from consumer-/business-grade components. NASA paid for high-quality components and, if potential problems in the systems were suspected before launch, paid even more to have them redesigned/replaced.

Nevertheless, there have been many partial and complete failures on the spacecraft since shortly after launch. What is really amazing is not so much the reliable technology, but, as you say, "the engineers who ... kept them running for 50 yrs", diagnosing and finding ways to work around these failures! If we had teams of brilliant JPL engineers providing ongoing support for our present-day systems, these systems would also last 50 years!

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: In a world of planned obsolescence....

"It's refreshing to see that the technology designed and built in the 1960's and 70's has proven to be reliable and had a longevity that today's tech industry would decry as ridiculous and unprofitable."

Yes, fortunately they pre-date lead-free solder and the capacitor plague :-)

[Cruachan]

Simply incredible that they keep going. Built and launched before I was born (not by much though) and given how I feel today after doing the Tour de 4 (Sir Chris Hoy's charity bike ride) yesterday, a great deal more functional too.

[Slx]

There's a lot of space in space...

What always amazes me is that they haven’t crashed into anything, despite the utterly enormous distances travelled. I'd have expected them to have been bombed with dust particles or high energy particles to have done them a lot more damage by now, but they're still going.

At this point they’re essentially flying blind, with no intelligent control. It shows just how unimaginably vast space is - everything is incredibly far apart and the chances of hitting something are clearly pretty small, and perhaps more benign to technology than I’d have imagined.

I know the Voyagers are extremely well radiation-hardened, and built to last, but even a device like that on Earth would almost certainly have failed long ago from constant interaction with the atmosphere.

[Anonymous Coward]

I see you have

A machine that goes "ping"!

[kurios]

addition to subtitle

As someone who worked at JPL during the Voyager era, could we add the words "...and genius" immediately after "stubbornness" in the subtitle? Not referring to my work, but to the amazing work I saw, looking over colleagues' shoulders as they sent those craft on their way.

[spold]

Voyager 2 that swung past Uranus

Funny. I never noticed....

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

Re: Voyager 2 that swung past Uranus

If you dig out such old jokes you should visit Mianus in Connecticut. If you are nearby.