New milestone for mankind
Gigabeat
Posts: 164
Woohoo. We did it (well actually USA did it). A man made obeject has left the solar system and entered interstella space.
Voyager probe 'leaves Solar System' = http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24026153
Well technically this occured around 25 August, 2012 but it tooks scientist a while to verify it.
Hmmm I wonder if some of those scientist work on the side as programmers for Daz ;)
Anyhoot congradulations to all of us & USA.
So Daz what do think, good excuse for a sale on some sweet spaced out products :)
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Comments
I was so excited when I read about this earlier today, brought tears to my eyes. The Voyager spacecrafts are really just remarkable in how they keep on trucking!
I'm waiting on the ships to start landing, we just told the universe we have water and are made of meat. :bug:
I was wondering when it would finally pass the borders of the solar system. How thrilling :D
...raises a glass in celebration.
in a way makes me feel both excited yet insignificant at the same time.
It's too bad that the the distance is so great and signal so weak they are unable to use the imaging system anymore . Would be fascinating to get a look at our sun from that far away.
Don't worry, all intelegent life are vegans, moooooo.
Totally agree. The photo Voyager took of Earth as a pixel dot was most humbling.
BTW they wouldn't have gotten that far if they installed Windows OS. LOL.
That's my feeling too.
Totally agree. The photo Voyager took of Earth as a pixel dot was most humbling.
BTW they wouldn't have gotten that far if they installed Windows OS. LOL.
In the NY Times article they mention trying to find someone who could write code for the very constrained computer, and it was one of my favorite details:
"As the solar system’s edge grew tantalizingly close, NASA asked the Voyager scientists to increase the amount of data collection. The problem: the 8-track data recorders from 1977 were not exactly bursting with extra space. Could Ms. Dodd even find anyone who specialized in that piece of technology and could coax it to record more?
“These younger engineers can write a lot of sloppy code, and it doesn’t matter, but here, with very limited capacity, you have to be extremely precise and have a real strategy,” she said.
She was able to find her man: Lawrence J. Zottarelli, 77, a retired NASA engineer. He came up with a solution. But would it work?"
Just the idea that they can even still adjust its programming at all, and the high stakes that has to entail, and finding a veteran engineer who could do it.
whole article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/science/in-a-breathtaking-first-nasa-craft-exits-the-solar-system.html?hp&_r=0
Don't worry, all intelegent life are vegans, moooooo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFZTAOb7IE
Don't worry, all intelegent life are vegans, moooooo.
How many life forms have you stomped to death and didn't even notice? You probably didn't care about their appetites either. :P
How many life forms have you stomped to death and didn't even notice? You probably didn't care about their appetites either. :P
Yet I provide a vast environment for life forms to live happily within my body. There are more of "them" than there are of "me".
And after living in Florida for a few decades I had learned to deal with life forms that stay on their side of the fence. Spiders in the garage are OK but are fair game once they're in the house.
And as for the message in a bottle now outside the solar system. It will be sailing on undiscovered long after we eradicate ourselves. A wasted testament to our brief flash of intelligence before our stupidity wiped us out. It will be a map to our tomb. We will be come a 2 minute segment of some alien TV version of "Galaxy's Dumbest Species"
Don't worry, all intelegent life are vegans, moooooo.
Yeah, now that the altairans got wiped out by their own technology.
The good news: Voyager has left the solar system and shall wander on exploring the universe, possibly forever...
The bad news: In a few centuries it will return as a gigantic, sentient starship of immense power and threaten to destroy the earth in search of its creator. Fortunately, a certain green-girl loving captain will be around to stop it...as soon as he adjusts his toupee.
In the NY Times article they mention trying to find someone who could write code for the very constrained computer, and it was one of my favorite details:
"As the solar system’s edge grew tantalizingly close, NASA asked the Voyager scientists to increase the amount of data collection. The problem: the 8-track data recorders from 1977 were not exactly bursting with extra space. Could Ms. Dodd even find anyone who specialized in that piece of technology and could coax it to record more?
“These younger engineers can write a lot of sloppy code, and it doesn’t matter, but here, with very limited capacity, you have to be extremely precise and have a real strategy,” she said.
She was able to find her man: Lawrence J. Zottarelli, 77, a retired NASA engineer. He came up with a solution. But would it work?"
Just the idea that they can even still adjust its programming at all, and the high stakes that has to entail, and finding a veteran engineer who could do it.
whole article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/science/in-a-breathtaking-first-nasa-craft-exits-the-solar-system.html?hp&_r=0
...as a certain cartoon character use to say, "Ain't it the truth?"
I wonder how much more efficiently and reliable most of today's software would be if developers and programmers used good programming technique. We used to call such sloppy programming, "spaghetti code" and it was a nightmare to debug when something went wrong as there usually was little to no documentation available.
I'm a bit concerned about the future of the space programme if they have to bring in retired engineers who still know how to write nice clean, precise, and compact code. I remember years ago when one of the Ariane rockets kept failing on launch. It was eventually traced to a mistake (an incorrect equation) in the attitude control software. It's one thing when a "bug" causes say, Hexagon to crash, it's another when that "crash" costs billions (or possibly even lives) and months if not years of development.
Part of the reason I don't care to travel on those "Nintendo" Airbus airliners. Give me a 747-8 any day.
Fig. 1. 747-8 Intercontinental
Fig. 2. 747-8 flight deck
Fig. 3. Airbus A-380
Fig. 4. Airbus A-380 flight deck
...which would you feel more at ease flying on given the state of software development these days?
the first one looks like an actual airplane cockpit. the second one looks like a epic gaming computer workstation! with seat belts!
My mother worked at Jet Propulsion Laboratory when Voyager was being prepared and she said she once carried the golden record (in a box) between offices. She hardly thought it was worth mentioning, I think it's the most epic thing she ever did. ;) To think that object she carried once has traveled beyond our solar system is amazing...and if I bring it up, all she does is complain about what a difficult work environment JPL was, haha.
Voyager 1 has a mere 68KB of ram on board.
We need someone with vision for our space program. We landed on the moon in 1969 and haven't done much since. NASA and the Cubs; two of the biggest disappointments of my life. I hope the Millenniums have more enthusiasm for space than my Baby-Boomers did. All we've done is throw a bunch of junk in space. Come on, in 40 years, this is the best we can do? It only took us 10 years to get to the moon.
I don't mean to marginalize our accomplishment of leaving the solar system - yes, congratulations.
My heart was broken when we retired the Shuttle and essentially disbanded NASA with no vision for the future. A trip to an asteroid is not my idea of vision.
the first one looks like an actual airplane cockpit. the second one looks like a epic gaming computer workstation! with seat belts!
...my point exactly. Just missing the Alienware and Thrustmaster logos. ;-)
...and who would have thought back then we'd be totally reliant on our old Space Race "rivals" to get our personnel up to and down from the ISS?
I disagree on some points. Space tourism and mining asteroids will be the biggest boon to space travel yet (as long as we manage to bring all the tourists BACK and send the asteroid debris AWAY from the Earth!) because finally somebody will end up making money out of it..
Going to the moon in '69 was spectacular but I'm not all that excited about manned Lunar bases. The moon trips were ahead of their time, political bravado and necessitated by the fact that we hadn't yet invented robots that could do the job of exploration. I'm very happy with the plethora of robots currently orbiting, exploring and/or traversing The Sun, Mercury, Venus, The Moon, Mars, various asteroids, Jupiter (and its moons), Saturn (and it's moons), Pluto, and interstellar space. I don't think NASA did a half bad job.
I was actually working in the Launch Control Center at the time of the launch of both Voyagers (and the Mars Surveyers, all Skylab missions, and the early Shuttle operations) so I have a deep connection to the space program but I'm willing to admit that it has matured enough to turn over to private companies. Government sometimes gets in the way of getting things done efficiently.
But to be pedantic I was reminded by this news article ( http://www.nbcnews.com/science/where-does-solar-system-end-voyager-isnt-officially-there-yet-8C11142403 ) that the Voyager has not actually left the "Solar System". It has left the "Heliosphere" but still has to get beyond the Ort Cloud of frozen comets that extends about a light year beyond Pluto. It will take Voyager something like 300 years to reach the inner edge of the Ort Cloud and 30,000 years to get beyond the outer edge, provided it doesn't get hit by one of them or deflected by the gravity of a close call.
Okay, we've crossed the Big Front Yard and poked our nose out of the gate. Let's go and see what's out there.
That is amazing! She is so lucky!
"Second star to the right, and straight on till morning."
As usual, the media reports are only half right. Voyager moved into interstellar space, but it has not left the solar system.
It has left the heliosphere. That is a similar distinction to leaving Earth's atmosphere.
The Oort Cloud orbits in interstellar space, but is still a part of the solar system. It will take a couple hundred years for Voyager to reach the inner edge, and around thirty thousand years to reach the outer edge.
So the big announcement is that we've reached interstellar space. Still puttering around the local suburbs, though.