Voyager At Edge Of Solar System (scientists fear Bush moon/Mars will kill)

[DeepModem Mom]

Washington Post:
Voyager At Edge Of Solar System
Scientists Predict 'Historic Step'

By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 25, 2005; Page A03


After a storied, 28-year odyssey, NASA's venerable Voyager 1 spacecraft appears to have reached the edge of the solar system, a turbulent zone of near-nothingness where the solar wind begins to give way to interstellar space in a cosmic cataclysm known as "termination shock," scientists said yesterday.

"This is an historic step in Voyager's race," said California Institute of Technology physicist Edward C. Stone, the mission's chief scientist since Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched in the summer of 1977. "We have a totally new region of space to explore, and it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Stone said project scientists, working from models of a phenomenon never before directly observed, finally agreed that data from Voyager 1's tiny 80-kilobyte computer memory showed that the spacecraft had passed through termination shock to the "heliosheath," a frontier of unknown thickness that defines the border with interstellar space.

Stamatios M. Krimigis, another longtime Voyager scientist, said in an interview that the spacecraft might remain in the heliosheath for perhaps 10 years but should easily survive, going dark when its plutonium power source expires around 2020.

Of far greater concern to scientists is the possibility that NASA could kill the $4.2 million-a-year project to free up money for President Bush's initiative to send humans back to the moon and eventually to Mars....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/24/AR2005052401434.html

[DrDebug]

1. Amazing!

A little 80K computer is going where no other computer has gone before ;)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

21. It's because it's pre-windows... :) n/t

[MindPilot]

2. this makes me cry

Humans are now reaching outside of of our solar system; but it will be yet another great leap of discovery and research that will go completely unnoticed because the majority of dumbasses on this planet would rather believe in some invisible cloud being than contemplate the awesome wonders of REALITY!

:wow:

[ladjf]

15. Outstanding post!

"...the majority of dumbasses on this planet would rather believe in some invisible cloud being than contemplate the awesome wonders of REALITY!"

This is one of the most profound statements I've ever read on the DU. I especially like ".. the awesome wonders of REALITY!"

[FizzFuzz]

18. me too, your post blew me away

I think I want a bumpersticker and Tshirt of this!!!

Bookmarking!

[whistle]

3. Bush has killed it, no funds allocated....

...not aware of any private money available and it seems no Institution has come up with the $4.2 million that would continue to monitor the probe. I'd send a donation, if I knew where to send it and had quarentees that it would be used to continue the Voyager program.


<snip>
Voyager: Beyond the Great Beyond

Summary (Nov 08, 2003): Has humanity's furthest operating space probe, Voyager, reached the edge of our solar system? Three research teams are debating whether Earthlings have sent operating technology beyond the reach of our local solar neighborhood, or not. Either way, Voyager will likely continue operating until at least 2020, or nearly a half-century after its launch.

<more>
<link> http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=665

[Gman]

4. Veeger may decide to return

and find The Maker.

[Ripley]

5. Beat me to it.

Veeger must survive so we can evolve into that new species!

You know Smirk's "Moon" and ha! "Mars" missions are just code words for the Pentagon's new outerspace bases.

[SemperEadem]

12. LOL! We can only hope it turns out that way!!!

[jojo54]

6. "free up money" to go back to moon & Mars, my ASS!

That would mean that there could be someone else out there other than their god!! Oh, my!

The only place that money will go is, to something that will cost more lives!

[Roland99]

7. "$4.2 million"? That's like an hour's work from Halliburton

[getmeouttahere]

8. And crappy work at that!

[Ripley]

9. Exactly....I was watching a show about the Space Shuttle...

recently. Specifically it was showing how they were repairing the foam/heat sheild problem that caused the Columbia to explode.

One tile cost $800,000. I was stunned! Yes, it is hand-crafted and a very important part of the shuttle, but it really goes to show you $4.2 million is nowhere near enough to even pay for the computers they'll need to operate on such missions.

[Roland99]

11. No kidding. We're wasting $250 million/day in Iraq

We could fund NASA *incredibly* with a week's worth of money being spent in Iraq.

[Gregorian]

10. And boy is God pissed!

[rodeodance]

13. maybe bush is afraid they will find a real god out there?

[ooglymoogly]

14. science is not compatible with bush's brain

brain used loosely here to connote matter

[LifeDuringWartime]

16. 80k memory??

imagine what kind of probe they could build now with similar intentions.... maybe some kind of super probe that spits out tiny prboes along the way so that it can communicate more data to and from earth.

screw the "war on terror," lets give all this money to nasa and the other equivalent organizations around the world!

[DrDebug]

17. It has some brilliant programming

They could rewrite the software in space. Because when it was launched there were no data compression algoritms, so they reprogrammed the computer from earth to include compression in order to be able to send more pictures for the Voyager to Earth.

It consists of two 5MHz 8 bit RCA 1802 processors (but with 16 bit instructions as well) But it was rather slow since it took 8-16 processor cycles per instruction, so you can compare it with a 0,5 MHz computer.

[shadowknows69]

19. I don't want to live on mars

Can we please stop fuking mother Gaea up more? I agree we need to explore and great idea about the "cookie crumb communication probes" When NASA steals that from you we can back you up and say it was thought of here first.

[MadHound]

20. Voyager, the little ship that could!

The last of the projects from NASA's glory days just keeps going and going and going. . .

I've followed Voyager and its twin since they took off, and have always thought that both were pretty darn cool. Rugged ships that have taken whatever our solar system has thrown at them, and are now ready to take on the galaxy.

80Kb computer, damn talk about some efficient coding!

This is just wonderful beyond words. And hey, just in case it does meet other life, it has recordings of life hear on Earth, some of our music, and a map on how to get here.

Of course Bushco wants to kill it, the man wants to kill all that is good and proper in the universe. Doesn't matter, Voyager will keep sailing on, an ambassador for Earth. Who knows what may come out of it, perhaps a bald headed woman:shrug: