Voyagers & Kbo's, Searching for KBO's w/Voyager cams? Options

[algorimancer]

I know the Voyager cameras were shut down many years ago, but I wonder whether it would be feasible to reactivate them and use them to survey Kuiper-Belt objects in the vicinity? KBO's had not yet been discovered at the time the cams were shut down, as best as I can recall, but it seems a waste not to put them (or even the star trackers) to use for periodic long-exposure surveys of the local vicinity. I know power is running low, but does anyone know if this is an option? Also, it would make sense to use ground-based telescopes to search for large KBO's near the Voyager spacecraft... it is conceivable that a serendipitous flyby may be feasible.

[tedstryk]

I know the Voyager cameras were shut down many years ago, but I wonder whether it would be feasible to reactivate them and use them to survey Kuiper-Belt objects in the vicinity?  KBO's had not yet been discovered at the time the cams were shut down, as best as I can recall, but it  seems a waste not to put them (or even the star trackers) to use for periodic long-exposure surveys of the local vicinity.  I know power is running low, but does anyone know if this is an option?  Also, it would make sense to use ground-based telescopes to search for large KBO's near the Voyager spacecraft... it is conceivable that a serendipitous flyby may be feasible.

No. The power levels are too low, and the scan platform has been turned off. I don't think there is enough power to run the cameras even if they wanted to. At any rate, the first Kuiper belt flyby might have already occured. I hope they can someday pin down information with greater certainty regarding this.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/460095.stm

[algorimancer]

Neat, I'm not sure I recall hearing about the Pioneer 10 thing. I would guess that, considering the distance, an optical search in the vicinity of the 1999 position should find the KBO; I wouldn't expect much visible motion.

[dilo]

Neat, I'm not sure I recall hearing about the Pioneer 10 thing.  I would guess that, considering the distance, an optical search in the vicinity of the 1999 position should find the KBO; I wouldn't expect much visible motion.

Assuming moderate orbit eccentricity, an object orbiting at this distance should move at least 10 degree from position occuped 12.5 years before... not so easy to find, considering that direction of motion is unknown!

[nprev]

That must have been a CLOSE encounter for a detectable deflection to happen at all, true?.... .

Most KBOs are real lightweights, considering their low densities. Considering the odds of Pioneer 10 coming anywhere near anything out there, maybe a search within a 10 deg radius of the last known position would actually be worth doing! Odds are that the object is pretty hefty by KBO standards...plus, the BBC article indicated that it might be on a solar escape trajectory, so the history/orbital dynamics of this hypothetical body would be extremely interesting in so many ways...

[ljk4-1]

That must have been a CLOSE encounter for a detectable deflection to happen at all, true?.... .

Most KBOs are real lightweights, considering their low densities. Considering the odds of Pioneer 10 coming anywhere near anything out there, maybe a search within a 10 deg radius of the last known position would actually be worth doing! Odds are that the object is pretty hefty by KBO standards...plus, the BBC article indicated that it might be on a solar escape trajectory, so the history/orbital dynamics of this hypothetical body would be extremely interesting in so many ways...

Here's a question: If one of only four probes we have sent into the TNO/KBO region had a close encounter with such an object by pure chance, does this mean that the belt is denser with such bodies than thought? Being so far from the Sun and so dark also makes this a possibility.

Maybe we've just solved the dark matter issue too....