back to article Voyager 1 left the planet 41 years ago – and SpaceX hopes to land on Earth this Saturday

Yesterday saw the 41st anniversary of Voyager 1’s launch from the Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 41 – and SpaceX fire up its next Falcon 9 at the neighbouring Launch Complex 40 pad. Launched just after its twin, Voyager 2, the spacecraft was sent on NASA’s Grand Tour of the solar system, scooting past Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn …

Page:

  1. Joeman

    13.3 billion miles (21.4 million km)

    1. Aladdin Sane

      But how far is it in linguine?

      1. Pen-y-gors

        Whatever...

        Regardless of the units, my mind boggles that a machine built by humans, is now over 13,300,000,000 miles from our planet, and is still talking to us. When I was born, no-one had sent a machine more than a few miles from the ground. How far can we. as a species, go?

        1. MachDiamond Silver badge

          Re: Whatever...

          "13,300,000,000 miles from our planet, and is still talking to us.

          The anti-nuke crowd must be livid as they can't there to protest the RTG power supply it uses.

    2. Tweetiepooh
      Joke

      Ah the metric million!!

    3. imanidiot Silver badge
      Facepalm

      If they'd messed up the short and long scale billion that'd be understandable, but this is just sloppy El Reg...

      And it's:

      152891136912288.78 lg

      2321809216587.529 ddbs

      973828897530.5018 bsl

      Give or take a linguine or two probably

    4. Dagg Silver badge
      Headmaster

      Long or Short

      Long billion 10**12 or short billion 10**9. Since the 1950s the short scale has been increasingly used in technical writing and journalism, so this has to be assumed as the short billion.

      Now approx 1.6 km per mile, so 13.3 billion miles is (13.3 * 1.6) billion km. No idea where you got 21.4 million km from....

      1. Cuddles

        Re: Long or Short

        "No idea where you got 21.4 million km from...."

        It's almost as though two similar-sounding words that differ only by a single letter can occasionally be accidentally substituted for one another when writing. It's a shame this is such rare occurrence that we haven't invented a word to describe such typos.

  2. Aladdin Sane
    Pint

    There will never be enough beer for the people behind Voyager.------>

    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
      Pint

      True! As a teenager, I followed all the Mariner, Pioneer, Viking, and Voyager projects, after being completely captivated by the Apollo project earlier in my youth. I feel forever in their debt

  3. Belperite
    Alien

    V'ger

    I'm sure I saw a documentary about what will happen to that probe once. Perhaps we should launch a mission to retrieve it?

    1. Aladdin Sane
      Terminator

      Re: V'ger

      I propose a 5 year span for the mission.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: V'ger

      Just don't put a woman in charge, last time that happened they took a wrong turn at DS9 and got lost for 10 years the deep space equivalent of Lincolnshire!

      1. katrinab Silver badge

        Re: V'ger

        Then let's not mention what would happen if you put a man in charge of it.

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/7755988/Women-give-better-directions-than-men-study-finds.html

        1. JimmyPage Silver badge
          Stop

          Re: Women-give-better-directions-than-men

          O'Reilly ?

          From bitter experience, women are very good at adding all sorts of irrelevant details to the directions ... I mean "carry on until you get to the A454, turn left, 500 yards, your're there" is succinct. You don't need to know about any roundabouts, superstores, churches, or other landmarks on the way.

          1. onefang

            Re: Women-give-better-directions-than-men

            "You don't need to know about any roundabouts, superstores, churches, or other landmarks on the way."

            Depends on what sort of navigator you are. Some people navigate better with landmarks than with dead reckoning.

            "carry on until you get to the A454, turn left, 500 yards, your're there"

            Your example includes a landmark, the A454. A superstore might be a tad more obviously visible than a street sign that says "A454".

          2. Just Enough

            Re: Women-give-better-directions-than-men

            "carry on until you get to the A454, turn left, 500 yards, your're there"

            Which road will I be on to get to the A454?

            Will it say A454 on the sign, or will it be the name of the road, or the name of the town it leads to?

            How far do I go until I reach the A454? 1 mile? 50? 100? How will I know if I've missed it if I've no idea how far to go?

            Do I turn left on the A454? Or turn left onto the A454? Or is the left turn simply at the same place as the A454 ?

            Your succinct directions suck.

      2. Version 1.0 Silver badge

        Re: V'ger

        "Just don't put a woman in charge" ... please remind me, which gender couldn't convert from metric to imperial measurements when landing on Mars?

        1. katrinab Silver badge

          Re: V'ger

          And you don’t need to remind me who did the calculations on early flights, that did reach the correct destination

          https://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/researchernews/rn_kjohnson.html

      3. arctic_haze

        Re: V'ger

        Put in charge an Artificial Intelligence.

        What can go wrong?

        1. Usermane

          Re: V'ger

          Have you seen Star Trek The Movie, when the crew of the Enterprise finds a Voyager?

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: V'ger

        > Just don't put a woman in charge

        Just for your info, what might have seemed funny to some audiences in a 1950s American sitcom doesn't come across as particularly witty or imaginative in 2018.

        But you must know that, otherwise you wouldn't have bothered to go anonymous for this one.

        1. 404

          Re: V'ger

          Please don't faint, but that was good up into the 1990's.

          It went:

          1950's: Bam, zoom, straight to the moon physical abuse of women.

          1960's: James Bond slayed more female sex symbols than you could shake a stick at... Hippies, free love.

          1970's: James Bond still swinging it, Disco, Son of Sam, etc.

          1980's: Weird Science: creating female sex slaves and ballistic missiles in adolescent boys bedrooms... With Computers & Modems.

          1990's: Everybody is Fucking. Even Bill Clinton.

          2000's: Age of the Offended. Yet everybody is fucking.

          Main theme throughout all is everybody is getting laid and laughing at the same shit - except maybe in front of you.

    3. David Knapman

      Re: V'ger

      Unfortunately, that's Voyager 6 which we were meant to launch in the late 20th century but we haven't gotten around to launching yet.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Alien

      Re: V'ger

      @Belperite

      We don't need to retrieve it. As you can see in that same documentary, it is programmed to return to Earth on its own once its data banks are full or it starts having an existential crisis about how it knows all, but why doesn't that make it happy?

      Whichever comes first....

      1. Aladdin Sane

        Re: existential crisis about how it knows all, but why doesn't that make it happy?

        I believe that's due to the pain in its diodes down its left side.

        1. Kane
          Meh

          Re: existential crisis about how it knows all, but why doesn't that make it happy?

          "I believe that's due to the pain in its diodes down its left side."

          .

          Now the world has gone to bed,

          Darkness won't engulf my head,

          I can see in infrared,

          How I hate the night.

          .

          Now I lay me down to sleep,

          Try to count electric sheep,

          Sweet dream wishes you can keep,

          How I hate the night.

      2. MachDiamond Silver badge

        Re: V'ger

        "We don't need to retrieve it. As you can see in that same documentary, it is programmed to return to Earth on its own once its data banks are full or it starts having an existential crisis about how it knows all, but why doesn't that make it happy?"

        Is there going to be a mandate that it will have to have its own toilet provided at all public facilities?

    5. shaunhw

      Re: V'ger

      @Alien

      " V'ger

      I'm sure I saw a documentary about what will happen to that probe once. Perhaps we should launch a mission to retrieve it"

      No No! We have to leave it out there for some aliens to soup it up, (hopefully without using any Microsoft stuff on it) and then for Captain Kirk to find it.

      It is so written!

  4. This post has been deleted by its author

  5. Rich 2 Silver badge

    Voyager

    I thought Voyager 2 was launched before Voyager 1. But Voyager 1 was faster, hence it overtook V2.

    And just to confuse things, V2 was originally going to be V1, but there was a last minute hitch with V1 (or was it V2?) so NASA swapped them over.

    Confused?

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Voyager

      Surely Voyager 0 should be first ?

      That's what happens when you let FORTRAN programmers build things

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Voyager

        "Surely Voyager 0 should be first ?"

        No, Voyager 0 should be zeroth.

      2. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: Voyager

        "That's what happens when you let FORTRAN programmers build things"

        Whereas Pascal programmers could simply choose which one would be first, as in

        CONST First = 42, Last = 43;

        VAR Voyager : ARRAY [First .. Last] OF SPACEPROBE ;

        and given that there are just 2 Voyagers, they might have gone for Voyager FALSE, to be followed by Voyager TRUE (or actually Voyager[FALSE] and Voyager[TRUE]), which would have been really, really WRONG

        I'll get me coat. The one with Jensen and Wirth's "Pascal User Manual and Report" in the pocket. please

  6. Kubla Cant

    Telstar

    It's great to find that name still in use, but now my head's filled with warbly electric organ music.

    1. Marcus000

      Re: Telstar

      [

      Telstar. It's great to find that name still in use, but now my head's filled with warbly electric organ music.]

      Argh! Now my head is filled with warbly electric organ music!

      M

      1. Stuart 22
        Pint

        Re: Telstar

        T'other one celebrating 56.15890410958 or so years since launch day. Or to put into user friendly terms almost 11.2317808219 Welsh Assembly terms.

        Time to raise 56.826125 cl of that ---->

        [Sorry, I spilt the rest]

      2. onefang

        Re: Telstar

        "[Telstar. It's great to find that name still in use, but now my head's filled with warbly electric organ music.]

        "Argh! Now my head is filled with warbly electric organ music!"

        I kinda like warbly electric organ music.

      3. Teiwaz
        Happy

        Re: Telstar

        [

        Telstar. It's great to find that name still in use, but now my head's filled with warbly electric organ music.]

        Argh! Now my head is filled with warbly electric organ music!

        M

        And with that timely reminder, I'm now listening to the Mahna Mahna song ('coz I like it)

        1. MyffyW Silver badge

          Re: Telstar

          Dee, dee dee, dee dee dee dee dee dee dee, dum dum dum dum, da da da da da da, dee dee dee dee dee dee, da da, diddle dee dee

          And don't get me started on the key-pace change in the middle. Awesome music if only 'cos it reminds me of my Dad.

        2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

          Re: Menah Menah

          For those who don't know, it's right here.

          And, if you're still interested after that, please view the greatest, all-time best Muppet sketch here.

          Ah, the Muppets. Good times.

          P.S. : This one is a pretty good runner-up to the title of all-time greatest.

          1. Hedgehog Spen

            Re: Menah Menah

            I respectfully submit this as a contender...

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY

            1. onefang

              Re: Menah Menah

              This is my fave, sorry I couldn't find a better quality version on YouTube.

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3gIf16d0Tc

              1. Uncle Slacky Silver badge

                Re: Menah Menah

                I think my favourite is the Koozebanian Mating Ritual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbXzpoH6m2c

      4. Wayland

        Re: Telstar

        {

        [

        Telstar. It's great to find that name still in use, but now my head's filled with warbly electric organ music.]

        Argh! Now my head is filled with warbly electric organ music!

        M

        }

        Mine too

    2. Christian Berger

      Actually that name is still widely in use

      Imagine a socker ball, then look at this Wikipedia page:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adidas_Telstar

  7. Tony Jarvie

    3.6AU per year

    That sounds impressively fast, but when I worked it out (please check my maths here!) it's approximately: 334640906 miles (according to Google's conversion). Divide by around 365.25 days per year = 916,197 miles per day. Divide by 24 hours per day, and that's around 38,174 miles per hour. The ISS goes around about 17,500 mph so it's only twice as fast as the ISS, roughly speaking. (I'm assuming that the 3.4AU is approximate and that 365.25 is close enough for a year's duration). I honestly thought it would be going faster than that.

    1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

      Re: 3.6AU per year

      But it's been decelerating since it was going its fastest. Didn't it pick up Jupiter's and Saturn's orbital velocity on a couple of slingshots?

      1. Tony Jarvie

        Re: 3.6AU per year

        How much is it decelerating by? Since it's in (mostly) vacuum, there wouldn't be much in the way of friction against other particles. And I wouldn't think collisions with micro-meteorites, etc. would make much of a dent in its speed. Other parts of it, yes, but not its speed! The sun's rays would presumably push it along by a tiny amount, collisions from behind by other space particles might do the same slightly, but unless it's been slowed down a lot by hitting the heliosheath / edge of the healioshpere, then what's been slowing it down? Oh, and the slingshots around planets (which the ISS obviously hasn't benefited from unless you count its orbit as a permanent slingshot around Earth) is another reason why I'd have thought it would be a lot faster than twice ISS's speed.

        1. Paul Kinsler

          Re: How much is it decelerating by?

          Perhaps we might ask Isaac Newton? He's probably got a theory...

Page:

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like