Pioneering NASA Spacecraft Mark 30 Years of Flight |
Pioneering NASA Spacecraft Mark 30 Years of Flight |
Aug 20 2007, 06:35 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 191 Joined: 20-November 06 From: Saint Louis Member No.: 1376 |
-------------------- - Matt
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Aug 21 2007, 01:16 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 213 Joined: 21-January 07 From: Wigan, England Member No.: 1638 |
Here's a news snippet I wasn't aware of:
QUOTE In a little-known footnote to space history, Voyager 1's Titan booster shut down prematurely after liftoff. The powerful Centaur upper stage was barely able to compensate, reaching escape velocity 3.4 seconds before running out of fuel. Luckily, Voyager 1 would still reach Jupiter and Saturn as planned. However, had the underachieving Titan been used instead for Voyager 2, whose trajectory hinged on getting maximum performance from its booster, its eventual encounters with Uranus (in 1986) and Neptune (in 1989) would have been lost. By pure chance, Voyager 2 got the better rocket. Seems like the Uranus and Neptune encounters hung by a thread in more ways than one... -------------------- "I got a call from NASA Headquarters wanting a color picture of Venus. I said, “What color would you like it?” - Laurance R. Doyle, former JPL image processing guy
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Aug 21 2007, 03:03 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
Is there a reference for the booster underperformance? Didn't Voyager 1 actually put a higher demand on the launch vehicle as it was launched on a faster trajectory?
This quote also seems inaccurate to me: QUOTE Voyager 1's launch took place 16 days later, on September 5th, when the planetary alignment was better for reaching Jupiter and Saturn — but by which time the Uranus-Neptune trajectory "window" had closed. Is it not the case of Vgr 1 not being able to reach Uranus and Neptune solely because the Titan flyby would severely bend the trajectory out of the ecliptic, making any further planetary encounters impossible? In case of Voyager 1's failure, 2 would have been retargetted to Titan and would also have lost Uranus and Neptune.
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Aug 22 2007, 02:46 AM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 191 Joined: 20-November 06 From: Saint Louis Member No.: 1376 |
Well, I don't know about any of these things, but since this is a birthday thread I'll give my thoughts along those lines.
Voyager occupies a really special place with me. I can remember back to what passed as NASA - TV back then, I think it was V2's flyby of Saturn. I had just become old enough to know what the Voyagers were and what they were doing and I sat for days in front of the TV... watching the images come in just as the mission scientists did back at JPL. It launched a deep interest in astronomy (and later spaceflight itself) that's lasted and defined me ever since. Thank you Voyager.... here's to 30 MORE years! *raises glass* -------------------- - Matt
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Aug 22 2007, 07:58 AM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
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Aug 30 2007, 01:04 AM
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#6
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Interplanetary Dumpster Diver Group: Admin Posts: 4404 Joined: 17-February 04 From: Powell, TN Member No.: 33 |
Is it not the case of Vgr 1 not being able to reach Uranus and Neptune solely because the Titan flyby would severely bend the trajectory out of the ecliptic, making any further planetary encounters impossible? In case of Voyager 1's failure, 2 would have been retargetted to Titan and would also have lost Uranus and Neptune. Yes. Also, there were some funding battles (Voyager 2 nearly got turned off before Uranus). -------------------- |
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Guest_AlexBlackwell_* |
Aug 30 2007, 01:12 AM
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#7
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Guests |
Is there a reference for the booster underperformance? I believe it's also mentioned in Voyager Tales by David W. Swift. I mentioned this book and another interesting Voyager tidbit in this post. |
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Aug 30 2007, 07:24 PM
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#8
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2922 Joined: 14-February 06 From: Very close to the Pyrénées Mountains (France) Member No.: 682 |
It can't be 30 years! My tee-shirt still shows 12 years.
I've got to ask TPS for replacement with an updated one. -------------------- |
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Aug 30 2007, 11:13 PM
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#9
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8784 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Yes. Also, there were some funding battles (Voyager 2 nearly got turned off before Uranus). One of the most egregiously stupid examples of 'penny-wise, pound foolish' in history...thank God reason prevailed. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Guest_PhilCo126_* |
Aug 31 2007, 06:28 PM
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Guests |
Superb T-shirt... a real classic
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Guest_John Flushing_* |
Sep 1 2007, 12:03 AM
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Yes. Also, there were some funding battles (Voyager 2 nearly got turned off before Uranus). As many people may remember, there was also another shutdown proposal which came in 2005, before Voyager 1 passed the 100 Astronomical Unit mark in 2006. |
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Sep 1 2007, 01:08 AM
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#12
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Member Group: Members Posts: 444 Joined: 1-July 05 From: New York City Member No.: 424 |
While I don't claim any expertise in the politics of NASA's relationship with Congress, it's hard to believe that the proposal to shut down the Voyager program in 2005 was anything but an attention-getting gesture. For one thing, assuming that NASA actually had made an irrevocable commitment to shut off all government money from the program, private funding could probably been raised in several hours.
TTT |
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Guest_John Flushing_* |
Sep 1 2007, 12:13 PM
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#13
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In my opinion, Voyager is of the most successful missions mankind has ever launched, no question.
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Sep 1 2007, 12:40 PM
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#14
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Member Group: Members Posts: 213 Joined: 21-January 07 From: Wigan, England Member No.: 1638 |
While I don't claim any expertise in the politics of NASA's relationship with Congress, it's hard to believe that the proposal to shut down the Voyager program in 2005 was anything but an attention-getting gesture. The person who made the decision at NASA HQ never owned-up to it, so the true motivation was never revealed. It was a pretty slimy act to quietly remove funding from the forthcoming year's budget and not have the decency to tell the project that they were about to be canned. -------------------- "I got a call from NASA Headquarters wanting a color picture of Venus. I said, “What color would you like it?” - Laurance R. Doyle, former JPL image processing guy
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Sep 1 2007, 03:03 PM
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#15
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1584 Joined: 14-October 05 From: Vermont Member No.: 530 |
These sort of games are not unique to NASA. In fact, they remind me of school budgets. Well, you all voted down the budget... the first thing we cancel is high school sports and all elementary school field trips. Oh look at that, the re-vote passed.
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