Voyager 1 Fires Up Thrusters After 37 Years

Scott M. Kozel wrote:
On Friday, December 1, 2017 at 8:41:25 PM UTC-5, palsing wrote:

This is so cool!

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.p...ly201 71201-1

"If you tried to start a car that's been sitting in a garage for
decades, you might not expect the engine to respond. But a set of
thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft successfully fired up
Wednesday after 37 years without use..."

So the spacecraft stayed aligned properly for the last 37 years,
without using any thrusters to correct the alignment? If not
aligned properly the antenna won't be able to communicate with
the Earth.


If you read the link you will see that these are backup thrusters not used
since 1980. They have been activated to extend the life of the probe.

On 02/12/2017 12:04, Paul Schlyter wrote:
On Fri, 1 Dec 2017 17:41:21 -0800 (PST), palsing
wrote:
This is so cool!


https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.p...ource=iContact
&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NASAJPL&utm_content =daily20171201-1

"If you tried to start a car that's been sitting in a garage for
decades, you might not expect the engine to respond. But a set of
thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft successfully fired up
Wednesday after 37 years without use..."

Otoh, Voyager hasn't been subjected to the same amount of weathering
that a car sitting unused in a garage for 37 years would have been. It's
even doubtful whether the garage itself would have survived for so long
without maintenance...

Metal surfaces touching in a hard vacuum have a bad habit of cold
welding themselves together if you wait long enough.

http://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA_Publ...g_under_Vacuum

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 04/12/2017 02:42, Scott M. Kozel wrote:
On Friday, December 1, 2017 at 8:41:25 PM UTC-5, palsing wrote:

This is so cool!

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.p...ly201 71201-1

"If you tried to start a car that's been sitting in a garage for decades, you might not expect the engine to respond. But a set of thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft successfully fired up Wednesday after 37 years without use..."

So the spacecraft stayed aligned properly for the last 37 years,
without using any thrusters to correct the alignment? If not
aligned properly the antenna won't be able to communicate with
the Earth.

No they were using a different set of attitude control thrusters for
fine adjustments but they have (almost) run out of juice and are getting
less effective with each use. So they wanted to try out the alternatives
whilst they still have some attitude adjustment left to play with.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

RichA wrote in
:

On Saturday, 2 December 2017 11:34:12 UTC-5, Chris L Peterson
wrote:
On Fri, 1 Dec 2017 18:43:15 -0800 (PST), RichA
wrote:

On Friday, 1 December 2017 20:41:25 UTC-5, palsing wrote:
This is so cool!

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.p...7014&utm_sourc
e=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NASAJPL&u tm_content=
daily20171201-1

"If you tried to start a car that's been sitting in a garage
for decades, you might not expect the engine to respond. But
a set of thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft
successfully fired up Wednesday after 37 years without
use..."

Thank goodness for miracle of radio-thermal generators. Still
providing 300 watts of power after all these years.

They're a great way to power deep space probes. But they
weren't the remarkable thing here. The remarkable thing was
that moving parts actually moved after decades in a vacuum.
That's a very tricky thing to manage.

That, and unless they built it at -270 deg. C, they would have
had to be very careful with mechanical tolerances.

Given that they had to work for quite a few years anyway, I suspect
they brough all their expertise to the problem.

It's the sort of thing NASA is very good at, except when they're
very bad at it.

--
Terry Austin

Vacation photos from Iceland:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/QaXQkB

"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek

Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.

On Saturday, 2 December 2017 11:34:12 UTC-5, Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Fri, 1 Dec 2017 18:43:15 -0800 (PST), RichA
wrote:

On Friday, 1 December 2017 20:41:25 UTC-5, palsing wrote:
This is so cool!

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.p...ly201 71201-1

"If you tried to start a car that's been sitting in a garage for decades, you might not expect the engine to respond. But a set of thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft successfully fired up Wednesday after 37 years without use..."

Thank goodness for miracle of radio-thermal generators. Still providing 300 watts of power after all these years.

They're a great way to power deep space probes. But they weren't the
remarkable thing here. The remarkable thing was that moving parts
actually moved after decades in a vacuum. That's a very tricky thing
to manage.

That, and unless they built it at -270 deg. C, they would have had to be very careful with mechanical tolerances.