Voyager 2 starts talking gibberish

[n2doc]

Engineers Diagnosing Voyager 2 Data System

This artist's rendering depicts NASAs Voyager 2 spacecraft as it studies the outer limits of the heliosphere - a magnetic 'bubble' around the solar system that is created by the solar wind. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.


May 06, 2010

Engineers have shifted NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft into a mode that transmits only spacecraft health and status data while they diagnose an unexpected change in the pattern of returning data. Preliminary engineering data received on May 1 show the spacecraft is basically healthy, and that the source of the issue is the flight data system, which is responsible for formatting the data to send back to Earth. The change in the data return pattern has prevented mission managers from decoding science data.

The first changes in the return of data packets from Voyager 2, which is near the edge of our solar system, appeared on April 22. Mission team members have been working to troubleshoot and resume the regular flow of science data. Because of a planned roll maneuver and moratorium on sending commands, engineers got their first chance to send commands to the spacecraft on April 30. It takes nearly 13 hours for signals to reach the spacecraft and nearly 13 hours for signals to come down to NASA's Deep Space Network on Earth.

Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977, about two weeks before its twin spacecraft, Voyager 1. The two spacecraft are the most distant human-made objects, out at the edge of the heliosphere, the bubble the sun creates around the solar system. Mission managers expect Voyager 1 to leave our solar system and enter interstellar space in the next five years or so, with Voyager 2 on track to enter interstellar space shortly afterward. Voyager 1 is in good health and performing normally.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-151

[havocmom]

1. wasn't there a Star Trek movie about that?

Seriously, interesting stuff.

[NNadir]

12. Yeah. Captain Kirk was attacked by mutant bison who were eating prarie dogs.

In the sequel, the plutonium power source of both Voyagers cause Spock to mutate into an extinct black footed ferret.

Some people do science and some have a cartoon version of it.

No http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/28/17297/7983">neptunium, no Voyager, no Pioneer, no Galileo, no Cassini.

I am always amused when people who don't understand shit from shinola about what goes into science and scientific instrumentation get googly eyed about results they obviously know nothing about.

Have a nice evening.

[havocmom]

14. Nice over reaction to a cultural reference quip

Want some fucking de-calf with that tantrum?

I am always amused at people making rash generalizations about people they know nothing about while making veiled reference to their own superior scientific bent.

Have a nice delusion :rofl: May the force bring a sense of humor.

[Wednesdays]

15. You have a nice evening too, Sheldon.

:hi:

[eShirl]

20. No, Sheldon would have totally got the "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" reference.

Case in point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqQmfCOGmFU

[havocmom]

16. boy, you carry a grudge... all the way from the thread weeks ago

Really, one hopes for humor and balance in your world view. It is a real grace.

[eShirl]

19. YES there was, havocmom-unit! "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" to be exact.

I guess we can start referring to Voyager as V-ger now...

[foxfeet]

2. In Sarah Palin's voice, no doubt. n/t

[DJ13]

3. Maybe its talking in an alien language?

[sharp_stick]

4. It amazes me that they

can still send commands and maneuvering instructions to something that far away.

[eppur_se_muova]

8. And that is still functioning after 33 years without maintenance ... nt

[NNadir]

11. And I might add, running on nuclear power.

Everytime I see something about one of these spacecraft, I feel like writing the pop star Michio Kaku and telling him to fuck off.

[eppur_se_muova]

13. Just for you ...

apologies for weird format.

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/march_08_meeting/presentations/dudzinski.pdf

[miyazaki]

18. Ha, I remember Kaku and the plutonium powersource flap.

Making a name for himself doin' rounds on national tv to throw bombs at such a grand mission.
What an asshole. Calls himself a physicist, pffffft.

[sailor65]

5. Oh, no......

The machine race has found it, and now they're reprogramming it to come back and kick ass until it finds the Creator.

[Birthmark]

6. Translation of gibberish

"My God, it's full of stars."

Got nuttin'.

[damntexdem]

7. Hey, it was launched during a Dem administration.

But if it's now talking gibberish, then it has obviously become a Republican.

;-)

[coolkid115]

9. The spacecraft is

performing really well considering all the radiation and other dangers of space there is.

[notesdev]

10. It's from a time

when the USA was the leading industrial power and proud of it.

[Johonny]

17. Man that certainly doesn't seem right

Just pop over to look at Wikipedia and see in the 70s Russians launched a lot of interplanetary missions. Starting in the 1990s the USA took over leadership in that area (in terms of mission number). So if this is the stone age of USA interplanetary missions, why are we the leader in this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_planetary_exploration