NASA restablishes valid communication with Voyager 1.

Continuing on its mission to meet up with Capt Kirk.

 

Pretty amazing anything on that still works. It was made when 8 tracks were high tech.

 

Not much corrosion or erosion in space, I imagine.

 

Really outstanding work for all involved!

 

A freshman Gator QB named Cris Collinsworth threw a 99 yard touchdown pass twelve days after the launch of Voyager 1.

 

16 billion miles. Launched what? 1977?? Nearing it's 47th birthday since launch.

Space "distances" are incredible. Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years away. If Voyager had
been launched toward that star it would have only scratched the surface. That journey is only
24 trillion miles +.

Mankind, to be honest, is still at the same level of technology with outer space propulsion,
(liquid fueled rockets) as when Robert H Goddard started his work sending up the equivalent of
fireworks (Roman Candles).

Sure, there have been many innovations, but the technology of liquid fueled rockets is still primitive, inefficient
and dangerous, no matter how much one believes in 'Elon Musk". All he is doing is using the same technology with
multiple engines working in unison (series) with each other. Primitive as hell, at least when it comes to exploring anything outside
of the solar system, and frankly, liquid fueled rockets are not efficient enough to make manned missions outside of the
inner solar system practical.

It seems that the most viable technology for faster propulsion (currently) is a combination of nuclear propulsion (to start journeys)
and then having an ION drive thruster take over once the space vehicle is set in motion with nuclear propulsion systems.

The Nuclear / Ion drive concept is picking up steam but still far away from any real implementation. Even with a combination
of a Nuclear / Ion drive engine, it is estimated it would take 18,000 years to make the trip from Earth to Alpha Centarui.

Mankind is NOWHERE close to being technologically advanced enough to do anything other than to send robotic craft
around our local solar system. An impressive achievment, no doubt, but we are still essentially riding in the equivalent of a "dugout canoe"
when it comes to exploring space or anything outside of the solar system.

Interestingly, recent breakthroughs in fusion energy may be applicable to new propulsion systems in the not so distant future.

Our species has a long way to go to be able to explore other star systems. Especially with "manned" vessels.

 

Cosmic radiation can be detrimental to electronics

 

I’ll bet. My guess, though, is there’s not much up there to corrode or erode the protective measures against radiation that they designed into the probe. But honestly no idea.

 

Considering space is near absolute zero and water can't really accumulate on spacecraft in a vaccum, I tend to agree, corrossion is a small concern compared to the other difficulties associated with space travel.

 

Funny that you mentioned 8 tracks as high tech. 8 track decks are the primary memory devices on board Voyager 1 and 2.

Interstellar 8-Track: How Voyager's Vintage Tech Keeps Running.

 

Water isn't a concern in deep space. But still lots we don't know about what is out there. And if I remember correctly, while Voyager 1 and 2 are powered by plutonium, which decreases energy output year over year. If something goes wrong again, there may not be enough power to fix it. And we'll likely never know.

 

While corrosion is a primary failure mode for electronics, the on board processors are largely immune to moisture in terrestrial applications, let alone in the vacuum of space.

Primary failure mode will be simple wear out. Under standard operating voltages, all computer chips have a normal "wear out" mechanism that will eventually shut down the processors. There are many factors that can accelerate or slow down the march toward terminal wear out, but every chip ever made will get there.

The failure on Voyager I had previously been isolated to the Flight Data System (FDS) and not the Command and Control System. The FDS is a Volatile Memory Chip (if it loses power, all memory is lost. This is unlike the Non-Volatile memory chips in your computer or phone which retains data even after shut down). The FDS was designed to receive instructions, updates and patches and it is likely that NASA figured out how to program around the defective circuit block. It is common in modern Non-Volatile Memory chips to have "replacement cells" that can be accessed if one or more of the primary memory cells begin to fail. I have no idea if that was the case for the space limited Voyager, but it is reasonable.

NOTE: Wear out models from Texas Instruments (CCS and FDA chips were loosely based on the TI 7400 CMOS architecture) suggest major systems failure due to wear out of the CMOS will begin around 2027.

 

Voyager is power by 3 Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs). At launch, they provided 250W of out put. The latest data published by NASA was that the RTGs have degraded to providing 248W of output as of fall 2022. The Pu-238 used on Voyager has a half-life of about 87 years. While not a guarantee, it is far, far more likely that a cosmic ray induced latch-up or simple gate oxide breakdown will drive one of the chips into failure before the satellite loses power.

Fun side fact - RTGs were used all across the Soviet Union for Light houses, radio beacons and remote transmitters. Thousands were built and deployed. After the fall of the Soviet Union, very few were maintained. Thieves began stealing first the metal, then attempted to steal the radioactive fuel sources themselves. It has been up to the international community to help Russia and the former Soviet States contain all of the radioactive material. As recently as 2022 the US DOE provided $20M in funding for Europeans to go into Russia and secure one overloaded nuclear waste sight near Moscow.

For reference, most RTG lighthouse sources were Sr-90 (Strontium). Standing a mere 20 cm from an unshielded source cylinder would expose you to 1000 rem/hour. You would be dead in under 10 minutes.

 

Did you quote this from somewhere or did you just, like, know this shit?

 

I'd be thoroughly impressed if they typed all of that without any references

 

My internship at Oak Ridge National Lab was processing the Iridium shielding for the Plutonium fuel cells for RTG's used on NASA satellites. So, I know about RTGs in general. I also know about the Soviet use and neglect of them and about the stolen/black market radioactive material.

At my age, however, details - dates, names, places, power levels, etc....get foggy. I look back at reference sites to ensure I do not post bogus details or stuff that is flat out wrong, and then usually pick up detail that I either had forgotten, or in most cases had not known that I think is worth sharing with folks.

So, no, I do not have all of that committed to memory and can just bang it out. That first paragraph I fact checked from a NASA site. The "fun fact" I fact checked via a paper published by an academic who has studied the orphan RTG problem for national security purposes.

I am NOT a genius, just good at research and read alot.

 

You mean you DIDN'T know that?

 

Reports suggest that on April 20, the NASA team was able to reconnect with Voyager via the Probing Odyssey Test.

 

POT has so many applications, really an amazing weed.