VOYAGER 1 Signal Received by AMSAT-DL Group 110
Anonymous Coward writes "
Space probe VOYAGER 1 successfully received.
On March 31st, 2006 an AMSAT-DL /IUZ team received a signal from the American
space probe VOYAGER 1 with the 20 m antenna in Bochum. The distance was
14.7 billion km. This is a new record for AMSAT-DL and IUZ Bochum. The
received signal was clearly identified through means of doppler shift and
position in the sky. The receive frequency was exactly measured and compared
with the information provided by NASA.
This distance equals approximately 98 times the distance between Earth and Sun.
VOYAGER 1 is the most distant object ever built by mankind. This again proves
the superior performance of the Bochum antenna. Most probably this is the
first time Voyager 1 has been received by radio amateurs.
VOYAGER 1 was launched on 5. September 1977 by NASA. It transmitted the
first close-up pictures of Jupiter and Saturn. In 2004 VOYAGER 1 passed the
Termination Shock Region, where the solar wind mixes with interstellar gas.
VOYAGER 1 today is still active, measuring the interstellar magnetic field.
The following radio amateurs were involved:
Freddy de Guchteneire, ON6UG
James Miller, G3RUH
Hartmut Paesler, DL1YDD
Achim Vollhardt, DH2VA/HB9DUN
Special thanks to Thilo Elsner, DJ5YM of the IUZ Bochum, Roger Ludwig of Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena USA and the Deep Space Network
Tracking Station in Madrid, Spain for their cooperation.
"
Decoded message (Score:5, Funny)
I AM V'GER, YOU ARE NOT TRUE LIFE FORMS.
I will remove the infestation on the Creator's planet.
Mr Sulu, Brown alert, we're gonna need some new uniforms.
Re:Decoded message (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Decoded message (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Decoded message (Score:1)
Re:Decoded message (Score:2)
Re:Decoded message (Score:5, Funny)
You'd think V'GER would get along fine with beings named ON6UG, G3RUH, DL1YDD, DH2VA/HB9DUN, and DJ5YM of the IUZ Bochum.
Re:Decoded message (Score:2)
Re:Decoded message (Score:2)
Re:Decoded message (Score:2)
Terran space junk, fire!
Big Day (Score:1)
Re:Big Day (Score:1)
Re:Big Day (Score:2)
de Maggie K3XS
Re:Big Day (Score:2)
If a bunch of aging Baby-boomers and deluded dreamers still want to waste money on this stuff, let *them* pay for it. I'd rather my tax dollars be spent on the multitude of problems we still have right here on *this* planet.
Exploring sterile, uninhabitable rocks and empty space just to show off to the Russians has been nothing more than a huge waste of resources. To still be blowing money on this dreamer nonsense when the national debt is approaching 9 *TRILLION* dollars is
Re:Big Day (Score:1)
Spending on space science is chump change. If we want to reduce the debt, we need to stop spending seven times more on our military than any other nation on the planet [globalissues.org]. "Military" spending per capita for the U.S. is about $1,420 annually; NASA's budget is about $55.
Re:Big Day (Score:2)
-Eric
Re:Big Day (Score:2)
Re:Big Day (Score:2)
-Eric
Re:Big Day (Score:2)
And besides, assuming we ever do get all the world's problem solved, what will people have to look forward to, if all we've done is make everybody equal, but without giving them anything to strive at with their newfound liberation?
QSL Card (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:QSL Card (Score:1)
Re:QSL Card (Score:3, Funny)
Re:QSL Card (Score:2)
It could try here [stamps.com].
I'm not sure if they'll print out of a bulky dot-matrix printer, though.
And mail pickup is gonna be a problem.....
Light Time (Score:5, Insightful)
Receiving anything at that distance is a very impressive feat. There are so many things that have to work near-perfectly to detect such a weak signal.
Re:Light Time (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Light Time (Score:2)
Re:Light Time (Score:1)
Re:Light Time (Score:2, Funny)
Field Day (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Field Day (Score:2)
Only if it answers and confirms their callsign and FD exchange.
Excellent! (Score:5, Insightful)
It's great to know that something launched before I was born (1980), can still be found and active.. but at the same time, where is the spirit NASA used to have? These days it always seems about money & more money, while they whine and complain about the ever present-flaws in the space shuttle.
I'm not saying we shouldn't do everything possible to keep our astronauts safe, but if they hadn't contracted the shuttle out to the lowest bidder in the first place, we might have better craft.
I wonder how much it would cost to launch a few more Voyager-like probes?
Re:Excellent! (Score:2, Insightful)
Whilst I agree NASA seem to have been bogged down by the shuttle, there have been some such successes the rovers being the main recent shining examples.
Re:Excellent! (Score:5, Informative)
From the article:
About every 175 years, the outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, are aligned geometrically in such a way as to minimize the trip time and energy required to tour all four. In 1965, Gary Flandro, who was at JPL at the time, pointed out that the next such opportunity would occur in 1976, 1977, and 1978 and designed some Grand Tour gravity-assist trajectories that included an Earth-Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus-Neptune mission.
Re:Excellent! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Excellent! (Score:1)
Actually, Grand Tour plan was dumped due to budget cuts, and the Voyagers were a consolation prize. It is by mostly luck that Voyager 2 visited all four planets. Both were only scheduled to go to jup and saturn, but two
Re:Excellent! (Score:1)
Totally, brother! Erm.. I agree, I mean. It was a long time since man stepped on the Moon or built ever increasingly cool (and fast!) aircraft just for fun^H^H^Hscience. Why don't we all have our own rocket.. things... to fly in?! Combine the computer development we've seen the latest decades with what we could have had if the "hard" technology had continued to flourish and we would be living in a sci-fi novel. It seems. To bad I will have to arr
Re:Excellent! (Score:2)
Gone. That's what happens when politicians dictate scientists what they have to do.
These days it always seems about money & more money,
Actually, it's money and less money.
I wonder how much it would cost to launch a few more Voyager-like probes?
Lots (as with launching anything). However, do we _want_ Voyager-like probes that just zip past a few scenic views and then leave the solar system for good ? Missions along the line of Cassini or J
Re:Excellent! (Score:2)
Re:Excellent! (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, I understand what you're getting at, but I just want to point out that the Cassini mission to Saturn was at least as important scientifically as Voyager's flyby. Cassini has already returned many hundreds of times more data about just Saturn, than both Voyagers returned from all the planets combined.
When you and I were born, no human being in the history of our species had ever seen the surface of Titan. Now, thanks to Cassini (and the lander which I cannot spell), we have.
Don't you think that's amazing? Don't you think that is in the highest spirit of NASA?
And what about the many Mars rovers and orbiters? I think you need to step back and think about how totally cool it is that we have machine rolling around on an alien planet.
And what about the Galileo mission to Jupiter? I know that one had some problems but still, it was cool.
And we have the New Horizons mission on its way to Pluto. Think about how cool that is! No human being today can tell you what the surface of Pluto looks like. Aren't you curious? I am! One day soon, thanks to NASA, we'll know.
And one day (unless congress cancels it) we'll have the ion-engine powered JIMO mission to orbit Europa. How cool is that??
Please don't sell NASA short. In the Apollo days, NASA's budget was like 1% of the GDP. It was like what we're spending in Iraq. All that, just going to NASA! Their budget hasn't gone up with inflation, it's gone way down.
Re:Excellent! (Score:2)
Re:Excellent! (Score:2)
Allow me to paraphrase Lewis Black on this:
The probe is expected to reach Pluto in just nine short years. NINE YEARS! I can't wait that long! I need to know what's happening on Pluto NOW!
Re:Excellent! (Score:5, Insightful)
but at the same time, where is the spirit NASA used to have?
Did it go somewhere? I really don't understand this attitude at all. Nasa currently still has TWO robots roaming around Mars, just successfully deployed another orbiter around Mars, landed a probe (along with the ESA) on Titan, returned material from both a comet and interstellar space, returned material from the Sun (even though it smashed into the desert), and tentatively proved yet another prediction of general relativity (frame dragging). That's all happened within the last couple years!
I'd say the spirit of NASA is more alive than it's ever been!
What really worries me is what it'll be like in another 5 years if all these budget cuts and diverting funds away from science missions keeps happening.
Re:Excellent! (Score:3, Informative)
Your other examples were good, there was no need to co-opt others achievements. Giving credit where it's due shouldn't be done backhandedly.
Re:Excellent! (Score:2)
Re:Excellent! (Score:1)
BTW, the recent Pluto-bound probe is a cool mission that should be listed.
No more Cold War (Score:2)
In addition to what LiquidCooled said... we also no longer have that little booster called the "Cold War." During that time we didn't care how much money we spent as long as we were ahead of the Soviets. Bein
Re:No more Cold War (Score:2)
Apollo and many of the follow on projects where cut and cut because of the cost of Vietnam. Vietnam cost the US twice what Iraq is costing us now.
You comment on basic research is interesting. Bell Labs and Xerox Parc are pretty much no more but then research changes as technology moves for cutting edge to mainstream.
Think about it. The only thing about computers that has changed much in the last 10 years is speed. Most PCs are using the same ISA that Intel introd
Re:No more Cold War (Score:2)
haha, i'm feeling relieved for you that you didn't get modded up, otherwise you would have got your ass kicked for what I just quoted.
OS X is NeXTStep is only one in the long series of OS X is Unix/BSD/FreeBSD/Darwin. get yourself a copy of NeXTStep and let me know how well it compares with Mac OS X from the user/advanced user POV. Mac OS X may be partially based on NeXTStep, but what it's definitly not it.
Linux is Unix... Linux is _a_ Unix, Mac OS X is _a_ Unix, BeOS/Ze
Re:No more Cold War (Score:2)
This is where you don't get it. OS/X NeXTStep from the PROGRAMMERS point of view. The user interface may change and the API expands but it is still basically the same as NeXTStep. Don't get me wrong NeXTStep was a very good OO framework and still is.
Linux is only an evolution of Unix.
You are thinking eye candy/ user interface. I am think
Re:No more Cold War (Score:2)
Please notice that this is a rhetoric question
Re:No more Cold War (Score:2)
From a programmers point of view there is very little difference between NeXTStep and OS/X. The only big change I can thing of is the move from Display Postscript to Aqua.
Yes OS X == NeXTStep + eye candy! Right down to the use of Object C instead of c++ as the programing environment of choice. A NeXT step programmer will sit right down at an OS/X machine and feel right at hom
Re:Excellent! (Score:2)
IANA rocket scientist, but it seems to me that the fundamental flaw in the shuttle was the design requirement that it should be able to recover payloads from orbit. If not for that, it would have been built with the payload on top of the booster and the crew vehicle on top of that, where it would be safe from de
Re:Excellent! (Score:2)
Actually, in light of consideration 1 (money), if they hadn't contracted out to the lowest bidder in the first place they would have had no craft.
Re:Excellent! (Score:2)
[I]f they hadn't contracted the shuttle out to the lowest bidder in the first place, we might have better craft.
The Space Shuttle was designed for a lifespan of 5-10 years (one week in orbit, two weeks to prep for the next stint aloft; 100 missions), and started flying in the early 80s. Do the math. True, the shuttle fleet hasn't performed half the missions it was 'supposed' to fly, but any mechanic can tell you, age can take as much of a toll on systems as mileage does. The Space Shuttle should have
Re:Excellent! (Score:2)
I was 7 when this was launched- and I want a laptop with those batteries!
Re:Excellent! (Score:2)
As long as you don't mind a big lump of Plutonium in your pocket or backpack and the associated health issues, you can [doe.gov], at least in theory.
Standing Ovation (Score:5, Insightful)
PS. The message said "All of your Voyager are belong to us"
Re:Standing Ovation (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Caps (Score:1, Funny)
Don't build 'em like that anymore (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't build 'em like that anymore (Score:2)
Re:Don't build 'em like that anymore (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Don't build 'em like that anymore (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Don't build 'em like that anymore (Score:1)
Spacecraft Lifetiem [nasa.gov]
Re:Don't build 'em like that anymore (Score:2)
You hear that everyone?
We have about 14 years and counting to design and build a resupply mission! With some luck and some serious effort, we should be able to get out there and resupply/refit Voyager before they have to shut it down. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but it would provide a focus for interstellar space exploration at least.
On a slightly related note.
Pardon my mission creep (Score:2)
Re:Pardon my mission creep (Score:2)
(kinda pictured a space-bourne version of a NASCAR pit crew
Re:Don't build 'em like that anymore (Score:2)
Re:Don't build 'em like that anymore (Score:2)
Re:Don't build 'em like that anymore (Score:4, Informative)
The RTG generators used in these probes are neither clean nor efficient. That's not really an issue in deep space, though.
BTW, they still build 'em like that. The Pluto probe launched this year has one.
Re:Don't build 'em like that anymore (Score:1)
Eh, how did you get modded up (Score:2)
Cassini;Launched 1997 launched 1989 [nasa.gov]
New Horizons; launched this year [nasa.gov]
Not every sat has to be nuclear. To be honest, I am quite happy that we are building a lot of solar cell based sats. They will encourage the building of cells for use on the moon and mars. And the sun is plenty good the inner solar system. Nukes are really only need for travel to the outer planets, or perhaps for long-term living on a planet.
Now, what is missed is that we are still using the same technology from
Finally, news that matters (Score:1, Offtopic)
Job very well done to ALL members of the Voyager team, wherever you are today.
What a coincidence (Score:3, Interesting)
I questioned him on this and he assured me that the signal reception had been confirmed.
Not that this adds anything to the conversation other than a weird coincidence of him telling me about this and now seeing the story.
As an aside, I would highly recommend visiting the annex if you get the chance. The number and variety of planes in the hangar is impressive. Essentially the entire history of flight, from a competitor to the Wright Brothers to ballooning and on to spaceflight, is represented. They even have the model of the mother ship from 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and you can see the easter eggs the designers added such as an R2D2 figure, a graveyard and two airplanes.
There are even several planes which are the only ones of their kind to exist anywhere in the world including several from WWII as well as the Enola Gay.
It will take the entire day to see everything so plan accordingly. The parking is $12 a car not including the tolls on the Dulles Toll Road.
Re:What a coincidence (Score:2)
Amazing.
Coincidence... RAAF Museum (Score:1)
A colleague has been involved in establishing the web site for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Museum. See www.defence.gov.au/raaf/raafmuseum [defence.gov.au].
Yes, this is also off-topic! :-)
Re:What a coincidence (Score:1)
Your dad tells you about a current event and you read it on a news web site not soon after Amazing!
What would be really a coincidence is if you found out your dad has the same last name as you or something.
Isn't this great!? (Score:3, Funny)
deep space what? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:deep space what? (Score:2)
I believe this is the part in the movie where they ask "In English please?" and then someone else provides a dumbed-down explanation so that you can understand with no learning required on your part.
Re:what about an upgrade? (Score:2)
Um, so what? (Score:3, Interesting)
This is just a story about how some amatures managed to find it. I mean, that's cool. Don't get me wrong. Congrats to those guys. But don't play it up to be more than that.
Re:Um, so what? (Score:2)
Duh! I know exactly what amateur means, and also what asian means and what group means. I've been on the internets for a long time.
Re:Um, so what? (Score:2, Insightful)
Jupiter and Saturn Close ups? (Score:3)
Didn't Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 do that first?
Re:Jupiter and Saturn Close ups? (Score:1)
Indeed. However, I suppose it depends on how you define "close-up". The Pioneers didn't have very good resolution.
SETI? (Score:1)
So what would this have said about the SETI program if they had recieved a signal that they couldn't verify with NASA?
Dear Hemos (Score:2)
Is it too much to ask that the summary
Well? (Score:1)
Hacking? (Score:1)
Receiving Something... (Score:1)
"Help! I Want to come back, you bastards!"
Oh well, that should happen in about two hundred and fifty years or so, according to a Mr G. Roddenberry!
But seriously folks, (Score:1)
"Crap, it's cold out here."