Voyager Status, What is it? Options

[tuvas]

Anyone know the latest Voyager status? I've hear rumors, but I'm wondering if anyone has anything more concrete (I won't share the rumors, as I really don't know much about it, so...)

[djellison]

The only flight-like rover testbeds in the wild are Marie Curie (Sojourner testbed rover, at one point destined to fly on the cancelled 2001 lander) and 'Dusty' ( MER testbed ) which are both now at the Air and Space museum. There were others 'driveable' MER and Sojourner testbeds that were significantly lower fidelity - more like the 'Scarecrow' rover used for Perseverance and Curiosity. The Perseverance and Curiosity Vehicle System Test Beds are both in the garage at the Mars Yard at JPL. Perseverance and Curiosity also share an avionics testbed (MSTB) which is more analogous to what testbeds are usually like for missions that are not rovers/landers - the 'flat-sat' Mike mentions above.

This is Marie Curie, Dusty, and Maggie - the Sojourner, MER and MSL testbeds...
https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/3792/three-...s-in-mars-yard/

I don't know if Voyager has an equivalent to the MSTB functioning right now. I would be surprised if it does. I will say, keeping our testbeds up and running is VERY non-trivial. Having spares to fix them when things break gets harder and harder with age - and can reach a point where it's simply not possible to get the parts to do it. Older missions get parts poached from their testbeds in support of newer missions etc etc. If there IS a Voyager testbed, I suspect in terms of technicians certified to maintain it or operate it, the engineer trained by the engineer trained by the engineer trained by the engineer who built it probably got laid off 2 weeks ago.