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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Voyager and Pioneer _ Pioneering NASA Spacecraft Mark 30 Years of Flight
Posted by: jmjawors Aug 20 2007, 06:35 PM
-Link-
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-092
Posted by: Del Palmer Aug 21 2007, 01:16 PM
Here's a http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/9263496.html I wasn't aware of:
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...
Posted by: ugordan Aug 21 2007, 03:03 PM
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:
Posted by: jmjawors Aug 22 2007, 02:46 AM
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*
Posted by: Paolo Aug 22 2007, 07:58 AM
A reference for this is Bruce Murray's "Journey into Space", page 147-148
Posted by: tedstryk Aug 30 2007, 01:04 AM
Yes. Also, there were some funding battles (Voyager 2 nearly got turned off before Uranus).
Posted by: AlexBlackwell Aug 30 2007, 01:12 AM
I believe it's also mentioned in Voyager Tales by David W. Swift. I mentioned this book and another interesting Voyager tidbit in http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=1986&view=findpost&p=34802.
Posted by: climber Aug 30 2007, 07:24 PM
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.
|
Posted by: nprev Aug 30 2007, 11:13 PM
One of the most egregiously stupid examples of 'penny-wise, pound foolish' in history...thank God reason prevailed.
Posted by: PhilCo126 Aug 31 2007, 06:28 PM
Superb T-shirt... a real classic 
Posted by: John Flushing Sep 1 2007, 12:03 AM
As many people may remember, there was also http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23500-2005Apr3.html which came in 2005, before Voyager 1 passed the http://www.planetary.org/news/2006/0815_Voyager_1_Sailing_Past_100_AU_en_route.html in 2006.
Posted by: Tom Tamlyn Sep 1 2007, 01:08 AM
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
Posted by: John Flushing Sep 1 2007, 12:13 PM
In my opinion, Voyager is of the most successful missions mankind has ever launched, no question.
Posted by: Del Palmer Sep 1 2007, 12:40 PM
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.
Posted by: stevesliva Sep 1 2007, 03:03 PM
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.
Posted by: Planet X Sep 3 2007, 07:47 PM
Here's a quote from that shutdown proposal article that I found a bit odd:
I'd say those velocities are off a bit! Voyager 1 is actually traveling at 38,000 mph, and Voyager 2 traveling at 34,000 mph. Later!
J P
Posted by: Del Palmer Sep 5 2007, 02:01 PM
30th anniversary discussed on BBC TV news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/avdb/news/science_nature/video/117000/bb/117278_16x9_bb.ram?ad=1&ct=90
Posted by: SkyeLab Sep 6 2007, 08:36 AM
Voyager 1 launched on September 5, 1977, the day before my 10th Birthday!
So , erm, yes, today is my 40th Birthday!!
There, said it.
Brian 
Posted by: dvandorn Sep 6 2007, 10:42 AM
I got a dozen years on ya, ya young whipper-snapper!
I turn 52 this coming October 17th... I was born just short of two years before Sputnik 1.
-the other Doug
Posted by: PhilCo126 Dec 8 2007, 10:14 PM
I always enjoyed the design of the 1970s and 1980s pinback buttons made by JPL.
Here's an example of a nice on; Goodbye Saturn and upside down it says Hello Uranus
Posted by: nprev Dec 8 2007, 11:25 PM
That's cool as hell, Phil! 
Never saw that before.
Posted by: edstrick Dec 9 2007, 10:27 AM
Those were based in the calligraphic magic of a wunderkid calligraphic "geek"/"artist" who'd just made a distinct splash in the sci/techie world. I don't recall his name, but I think he was discovered or at least promoted by Martin Gardiner and his Mathematical Games column in Scientific American.
Posted by: nprev Dec 11 2007, 02:37 AM
It appears that Voyager 2 has indeed crossed over to the other side...
"Voyager 2 entered the termination shock almost 1 billion miles closer within the southern hemisphere of the heliosphere of the solar system than Voyager 1 previously had," said Voyager Project scientist Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology.
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1044867120071211
Posted by: tfisher Dec 11 2007, 03:55 AM
The artist most famous for the calligraphic text inversions is Scott Kim, but the Saturn/Uranus pin doesn't really look like his work. His tend to be a bit more polished and fancier calligraphy...
Posted by: nprev Dec 11 2007, 05:15 AM
Transcendentally cool, nonetheless...
Posted by: edstrick Dec 12 2007, 11:27 AM
"but the Saturn/Uranus pin doesn't really look like his work. " That's who I was thinking of... if those weren't Kim's work, they certainly were inspired by it. It was a microscopic "all the rage" at the time.
"It appears that Voyager 2 has indeed crossed over to the other side..." ONWARD! 0UTWOARD! TO THE HELIOPAUSE!
Posted by: PhilCo126 Dec 12 2007, 04:06 PM
We could go on & on about the NASA-JPL pinback buttons as I have a nice collection
Posted by: PhilCo126 Feb 26 2008, 10:08 PM
Already looking forward to the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Voyager asteroid belt crossings and the Voyager 1 Jupiter encounter, I guess it's time to put on our best clothes
the other Philip
Posted by: dvandorn Feb 27 2008, 03:44 AM
I think I saw an IguanaCon namebadge in there somewhere... 
-the other Doug
Posted by: PhilCo126 Feb 27 2008, 08:24 AM
That photo was taken in January 1986 during the Voyager 2 Uranus encounter...
Posted by: mchan Feb 28 2008, 05:37 AM
I was there (at least at the Planetfest) and collected a few of those buttons. Not as many as the gentleman in the photo. (Is that you?)
Posted by: PhilCo126 Feb 28 2008, 12:39 PM
No that's not me (although I have most of the buttons 
)
It's one of the flight-team engineers of Voyager 2 (photo taken 26-1-1986)
In fact those were hard times at JPL as the Uranus encounter Press conference was in preparation, the news of the Challenger 51-L disaster came in... 
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