Voyager I about to reach another milestone

[popeyespappy]

The Voyager I has apparently entered the outer part of the heliosphere and will be entering interstellar space in the not too distant future. When Voyager does pass the heliopause it will mark the first time anything produced by humans other than radiation has reached interstellar space.

Voyager I has been traveling for 34.25 years. Light time to the spacecraft from Earth is currently 16.5 hours.

http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/...?hpt=hp_t2

[Minimalist]

Amazing what man can accomplish when he doesn't sit around on his ass praying to some silly god, isn't it?

[Jackalope]

What I find amazing is that we're still receiving data from it after all these years.

I remember being amazed by the thought that the Voyager probes would actually leave our solar system, way back when I was a kid when they were launched. That day seemed like a lifetime away back then, and now it's almost here.

Amazing.

[LastPoet]

Its those nuclear batteries they carry. They are just sailing trough gravity. Not much need for energy except tp beep back at us. Mabe someday a conscious being finds it. Imagine his amazement.

[Anomalocaris]

What is truly amazing is the fact that it transmits from about 8 billion miles away with the power of a desk lamp, yet our receivers and signal processors are so capable that we can read its signals.

[popeyespappy]

The Deep Space Network 70 meter antennas at Goldstone, Madrid and Canberra don’t hurt.

Goldstone



Madrid



Canberra



I got to visit the DSN sites at Madrid and Canberra about 10 years ago. The antennas are quite large. It was very impressive.

Each complex consists of at least four deep space terminals equipped with ultra-sensitive receiving systems and large parabolic-dish antennas. There are:
One 34-metre (112 ft) diameter High Efficiency antenna.
One or more 34-metre (112 ft) Beam waveguide antennas (three at the Goldstone Complex, two at theRobledo de Chavela complex (near Madrid), and one at the Canberra Complex).
One 26-metre (85 ft) antenna.
One 70-metre (230 ft) antenna.

[Justtristo]

It was amazing that the Canberra one did not burn down during the massive bushfires which swept that region back in 2003. I remember one observatory (Mount Stromlo) that was destroyed.

[little_monkey]

What is truly amazing is the fact that it transmits from about 8 billion miles away with the power of a desk lamp, yet our receivers and signal processors are so capable that we can read its signals.

Somewhere, at about 50 light-years away, if there is civilization over there, they can see episodes of Lucille Ball.

[Epimethean]

I may be in Canberra for a visit (well, actually, if things go as planned, I will be staying in Sydney, but there is a handwriting exhibit on in Canberra that I want to see) over winter break. Since I will be in Madrid in March, it would be fun to see these monsters, even from a distance. My brother-in-law works on the giant mirror scopes as an engineer.

[Anomalocaris]

What is truly amazing is the fact that it transmits from about 8 billion miles away with the power of a desk lamp, yet our receivers and signal processors are so capable that we can read its signals.

Somewhere, at about 50 light-years away, if there is civilization over there, they can see episodes of Lucille Ball.

And can apply for research grants to determine how a specie so comically inept can manage to assemble the technology to transmit images of its own ineptitude by radio waves for all to see?