 June 25, 2012 - 8:57pm | (SPACE.com) A NASA space probe launched in 1977 is about to become the first manmade object to travel beyond the solar system, scientists report.
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 June 26, 2012 - 3:56am | Launched in 1977: a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... |
 June 26, 2012 - 4:41am | Amazing that its still working! I dont guess we'll be sending a manned mission to the heliopause any time soon either. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 26, 2012 - 4:51pm | Well of course it's still working, the cheap Chinese manufacturing enabler (NAFDA) wasn't passed until the mid 90s  |
 June 26, 2012 - 6:40pm | Oh Poo, I got a truck older than Voyager. It has NOT had as easy of a life, and it's radio is FULLY FUNCTIONAL. FUnny, I was pretty sure that NAFTA (or is "NAFDA" something else???) prevented Mexicanos from importing cheap products Hecho en Chino from the 90's until 2008 (long time) due to the tariffs that would be imposed. Some would argue that it meant NAFTA enabled China to take over Mexico. The truth is, it merely enabled Mexico to get some of the assembly jobs out of China! If NAFTA was not in place, US tycoons would have figured out some other way to sell their countrymen out to the Chinese Labor Pool...whic they were doing by 2002 in any case. That was the point of the agreements: If you are selling outside the US, then do it with Canada or Mexico for chrissake. At least SOME good came out of it. Like the Mexicano contributions on PathFinder missions. Don't blame the intent, fault the abusers and the self interested malcontents that chopped the balls off the original Bill (Bill before congress, not the Bill before Lewinsky  )...and then mocked it for performing poorly after then ensured it would fail...AND set themselves up to reap the resulting plunder!As for Voyager...uh, well...uh...I think the fact that moving parts (other than the digital recorder head) are kinda limited, and unlike solar power systems requiring charge cycles and not really creating a lot of heat, having Plutonium 238 in a permanent BBQ grill strapped to the thing tends to have advantages that modern craft in the "we don't make cool-ray plutonium 238 anymore" era have. Endurance-wise, I would say that the Mars Rovers are the extreme kings. |
 June 27, 2012 - 3:32am | Most of the instruments on voyager are dead or turned off at this point. It's mainly the cosmic ray detectors that are still working. But those are the ones of interest anyway right. I think a few of the cameras still work but there is nothing to see. The power supply is down to less than half power and so they can't operate all the working instruments at the same time anyway. New Horizons, which is on its way to Pluto (launched in 2006, arriving 2015) also uses the same type of Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) that Voyager uses and for the same reason. There ain't enough sunlight out there for solar panels. At the time, New Horizon's carried with it the last of the world's supply of Plutonium with it when it was launched. If you want an idea of what it would be like to jump into a new system and start looking for planets, you should take a look at the voyager "Solar System Family portrait" image. (Here's the link at JPL and Wikipedia). You can't even see the planets in the mosaic images, just in the cut outs centered on them taken with the narrow field (high res) camera. One day I should see if I can find the full resolution images of the mosaic tiles. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
June 27, 2012 - 7:29am | (snip) If you want an idea of what it would be like to jump into a new system and start looking for planets... (snip) Sounds like a good topic of discussion or an article. I believe most of us allow players to find planets their searching for. Of course most of the time they are going to charted space anyway. |
June 27, 2012 - 7:32am | Think of pre-Frontier, what's floating out there in space? What's waiting for the PC's to discover? Space Junk! http://youtu.be/6Fy7psIuJjc |
 June 27, 2012 - 7:43am | Thinking of possibly a ship full of Yazirian warriors sent out pre-FTL to conquer a new world for their clan. We could call the leader Khan. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
June 27, 2012 - 4:51pm | Yeah it was NAFTA with a T not a D...this graveyard shift is really messing with me. Regardless of interpretations, the gag still stands: good ol' V'ger (Star Blech: the Motion Sickness Picture reference) was manufactured before the age of outsourcing. |
