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Date: Aug 20, 2007 09:14
Aug. 20, 2007
Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@ nasa.gov
Carolina Martinez/Jane Platt
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-9382/0880
carolina.martinez@ jpl.nasa.gov, jane.platt@ jpl.nasa.gov
RELEASE: 07-205
PIONEERING NASA SPACECRAFT MARK THIRTY YEARS OF FLIGHT
WASHINGTON - NASA's two venerable Voyager spacecraft are celebrating
three decades of flight as they head toward interstellar space. Their
ongoing odysseys mark an unprecedented and historic accomplishment.
Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 launched on Sept.
5, 1977. They continue to return information from distances more than
three times farther away than Pluto.
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Author: Peter MunnPeter Munn Date: Sep 2, 2007 15:25
Leafing through alt.sci.planetary, I read the forwarded NASA message of
Mon, 20 Aug 2007:
>Voyager 1 currently is the farthest human-made object at a distance
>from the sun of about 9.7 billion miles. Voyager 2 is about 7.8
>billion miles from the sun. Originally designed as a four-year
>mission to Jupiter and Saturn, the Voyager tours were extended
>because of their successful achievements and a rare planetary
>alignment. The two-planet mission eventually became a four-planet
>grand tour.
It is of course nonsense to suggest Voyager 2 was designed only as a
four-year mission to Jupiter and Saturn - I knew about how the Voyager 2
mission was being planned to take advantage of the extremely...
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Author: robert caseyrobert casey Date: Sep 3, 2007 17:11
>
> It is of course nonsense to suggest Voyager 2 was designed only as a
> four-year mission to Jupiter and Saturn - I knew about how the Voyager 2
> mission was being planned to take advantage of the extremely infrequent
> alignment of all the outer planets when I was still at school in the
> early 1970s. But is it even true that the Uranus and Neptune encounters
> were in an extended mission category? That much I could credit, but it
> would still surprise me.
It was a budget thing. And if you can report to Congress that the probe
is working so well (beyond expectations) and it would only cost a little
more to bag Uranus and Neptune, well...
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Author: Dave MichelsonDave Michelson Date: Sep 3, 2007 18:53
Peter Munn wrote:
>
> It is of course nonsense to suggest Voyager 2 was designed only as a
> four-year mission to Jupiter and Saturn - I knew about how the
> Voyager 2 mission was being planned to take advantage of the
> extremely infrequent alignment of all the outer planets when I was
> still at school in the early 1970s. But is it even true that the
> Uranus and Neptune encounters were in an extended mission category?
> That much I could credit, but it would still surprise me.
Read the histories! Congress balked at funding the Grand Tour's TOPS
spacecraft and its STAR computer system, but grudgingly agreed to fund a
far less ambitious - and much cheaper - Mariner Jupiter-Saturn program.
(At the outset, JPLers were even carefully discouraged from mentioning
the possibility of going beyond Saturn in official documents or
presentations for fear of upsetting Congress.) Had Voyager 1's Titan
encounternot gone well, Voyager 2 would have had to take it on and that
would have eliminated the possibility of going to Uranus or Neptune.
Another thought: Had MJS been designed for a Neptune encounter, Voyager
engineers wouldn't have had to improvise as much as they did!
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Author: Pat FlanneryPat Flannery Date: Sep 3, 2007 21:58
robert casey wrote:
>
> It was a budget thing. And if you can report to Congress that the
> probe is working so well (beyond expectations) and it would only cost
> a little more to bag Uranus and Neptune, well...
I'll bet Senator Craig voted in favor of bagging Uranus. :-)
Pat
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Author: Julian BordasJulian Bordas Date: Sep 4, 2007 03:29
Pat Flannery wrote:
>
>
> robert casey wrote:
>>
>> It was a budget thing. And if you can report to Congress that the
>> probe is working so well (beyond expectations) and it would only cost
>> a little more to bag Uranus and Neptune, well...
>
>
> I'll bet Senator Craig voted in favor of bagging Uranus. :-)
>
> Pat
He voted by tapping his foot :-)
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Author: ProponentProponent Date: Sep 4, 2007 04:12
On 4 Sep, 02:53, Dave Michelson wrote:
> Peter Munn wrote:
>
>> It is of course nonsense to suggest Voyager 2 was designed only as a
>> four-year mission to Jupiter and Saturn - I knew about how the
>> Voyager 2 mission was being planned to take advantage of the
>> extremely infrequent alignment of all the outer planets when I was
>> still at school in the early 1970s. But is it even true that the
>> Uranus and Neptune encounters were in an extended mission category?
>> That much I could credit, but it would still surprise me.
>
> Read the histories! Congress balked at funding the Grand Tour's TOPS
> spacecraft and its STAR computer system, but grudgingly agreed to fund a
> far less ambitious - and much cheaper - Mariner Jupiter-Saturn program.
> (At the outset, JPLers were even carefully discouraged from mentioning
> the possibility of going beyond Saturn in official documents or
> presentations for fear of upsetting Congress.) Had Voyager 1's Titan
> encounternot gone well, Voyager 2 would have had to take it on and that
> would have eliminated the possibility of going to Uranus or Neptune.
> ...
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Author: Eric ChomkoEric Chomko Date: Sep 5, 2007 12:20
On Sep 4, 12:58 am, Pat Flannery daktel.com> wrote:> robert casey wrote:
>
>> It was a budget thing. And if you can report to Congress that the
>> probe is working so well (beyond expectations) and it would only cost
>> a little more to bag Uranus and Neptune, well...
>
> I'll bet Senator Craig voted in favor of bagging Uranus. :-)
I bet you think twice about eating a potato from Idaho...
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Author: Eric ChomkoEric Chomko Date: Sep 5, 2007 12:28
On Sep 4, 7:12 am, Proponent gmx.net> wrote:> On 4 Sep, 02:53, Dave Michelson wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>> Peter Munn wrote:
>
>>> It is of course nonsense to suggest Voyager 2 was designed only as a
>>> four-year mission to Jupiter and Saturn - I knew about how the
>>> Voyager 2 mission was being planned to take advantage of the
>>> extremely infrequent alignment of all the outer planets when I was
>>> still at school in the early 1970s. But is it even true that the
>>> Uranus and Neptune encounters were in an extended mission category?
>>> That much I could credit, but it would still surprise me.
>
>> Read the histories! Congress balked at funding the Grand Tour's TOPS
>> spacecraft and its STAR computer system, but grudgingly agreed to fund a
>> far less ambitious - and much cheaper - Mariner Jupiter-Saturn program. ...
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Author: Neil GeraceNeil Gerace Date: Sep 5, 2007 16:11
> PIONEERING NASA SPACECRAFT MARK THIRTY YEARS OF FLIGHT
Is zero-thrust coasting 'flight'? It wouldn't be called that if it
happened here on Earth. Just sayin'.
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