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Always have a backup. You may not use it for 43 years, but you’ll be glad it’s there when you do.
I’m only 41 years old.
This recievier has been working for my whole life, goes out of service 15 billion miles away, turns on a backup reciever, and is now back in contact with NASA.
…but the ice cream machine at McDonalds is still broken.
Both are by design. The ice cream machine actually just got a DMCA exception so the company that makes it no longer can dictate who repairs it.
I’m picturing the Voyager 1 terminal is an ancient computer from the 1970s hooked up to a large parabolic antenna, and everyone is afraid to upgrade it because they might mess something up. I’m sure that’s not the case, but its what lives in my mind.
Since I was thinking about it I looked up some stuff: “So Voyager-1 does not “really” have a computer, in the sense that it does not have an operating system or RAM or a microprocessor. It was built in the 60s before any of this was invented and used CMOS-based microcontroller chips from Texas Instruments. Overall, it has a 16-bit processor and a MASSIVE memory of 70 KILOBYTES. That is smaller memory than a thumbnail of a phone image today, but it was enough to send images through which we discovered Jupiter has rings and much more.”
Although it doesn’t compare to modern systems, the computer systems on Voyager is a computer by all means. It’s even the longest running computer that ever existed, having never been shut off. It runs Fortran code.
The image data that the camera made didnn’t have to fit in the computers memory. It was written directly to tape, which was then transmitted by the computer. The resolution is 800x800 pixels with only one colour at a time. The colour images or in larger resolutions were combinations of several images. The camera has been shut off by now.
Speaking of not wanting to touch the code, it did have an issue last year, where the code seemed to have stopped or gone into a loop for unknown reasons making it inaccessible for the operators on Earth. Thankfully another part of the computer was instructed to periodically overwrite the main code, so it managed to correct the error by itself. At least that’s what I remember reading.
You can cram a load of machine language into 70K. Seems far more than needed, bet a bunch is for redundancy.
It’s probably not too far off. The ground station probably uses the same antenna, the computer running it is probably relatively new, but I’m sure there’s some kind of emulation for the control software. Like a Fortran emulator, not like WINE or an old DOS VM.
The obvious solution is to launch the ice cream machines into space.
Holy fuck is that* the real distance?
Yep, here’s the Voyager pair’s live distances: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/where-are-voyager-1-and-voyager-2-now/
That’s awesome
Hank, don’t spray WD into your locks, you’re better than that Hank
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The guy is in Texas and not cooking over pecan wood. I’m making this point to show that he’s ignorant. That doesn’t mean dumb, it just means he doesn’t know any better.
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We all know you shouldn’t use that on your locks these days and can easily Google why. He wasn’t a technology guy and only really knew what he read or what an old guy who didn’t know shit told him. He did things the way he thought was right but he had some pretty big blind spots. Maybe he didn’t know about 3-in-1 oil.
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Plus it was a cartoon written by people who probably didn’t know any better and I’m taking both that fact and your comment far too seriously (or I’m just making an elaborate joke, that’s for the reader to decide).
In case you’re wondering, the correct substance is graphite powder
Yep, I had completely forgotten about graphite because I was looking at my 3-in-1 oil at the time. My mistake, and I’m leaving it to show my own hubris and blind spots, much like the Texan pictured above.
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Aha, the famous back door: https://youtu.be/Joed0P3hhbc
Every few months there is a similar such story about this ancient marvel of technology and the people remotely maintaining it against all odds.
I can imagine a headline 100 years from now:
“Engineers are modifying Voyager 1 decorative panel bolt into a functional interstellar communicator”
each line of code is transmitted over a bandwidth that only supports 1/2 a bit, and it takes 3.5 years to reach the Voyager
This is the exact bit of data I was searching for, thanks a bunch.
A hacker has hijacked the communication relay and managed to install Doom on the Voyager. The game runs perfectly but the user interface is reported to be somewhat laggy.
Cell phone broke, now using pay phone.
This is a collect call from: MOMCOMEPICKMEUP IMOUTSIDETHEHELIOPAUSE, do you accept the charges?
We need to start a new prank. People should randomly start phone conversations with, “This is a collect call from Richard, do you accept the charges?”., when you phone a friend. It’s funny because no one does collect calls on cell phones. It’s ironic & stupid at the same time.
You have a collect call from: daddy fine Nebraska cornfields Chris garbage hang up
It’s sad it’ll probably lose contact relatively soon. Does anyone know if there are any plans for a new long distance probe?
They’re already out there. Just don’t get as much news as Voyager. Unfortunately I don’t think any will be capable of lasting as long since we stopped using the radio isotope generators. New horizons is currently in the Kupier belt. It’s the 5th such probe to reach escape velocity from our solar system. Pioneer 10 and 11 were the other non-voyager probes.
Edit: I was incorrect, new horizons does use an RTG for power. But right now its mission is slated to end in 2029. I wonder if it will be kept alive like the Voyager probes.
Edit 2: yeah, the RTG is slated to run out of power to run the transmitters in the 2030s. It was originally designed to be more powerful but the DOE delayed delivery of the plutonium 238 required.
Dept of Education? D O Emissions? Can’t figure it out even with some searching
Department of Energy. The main role is to handle the radioactive materials that the government creates and uses
Also one of the three departments Rick Perry (R-Texas) couldn’t remember that he wanted to eliminate.
“See? If there is no government agency handlin’ radioactive waste, that problem goes away!”
He did change his tune after he became Secretary of Energy.
Also, May 15, 2023 — Former Energy Secretary Rick Perry would not support former President Donald Trump in his reelection campaign when asked on Sunday,
Something like rats and sinking ships come to mind. Now that Trump shows his true fashist colors, some REPs don’t want to end up as Trumps Himmler or Göring…
Department of Energy.
Department of Entropy
Department of Enthalpy
Department of Energy
Cool. Thank you for the info. I’ll have to look them up.
Sorry I put a couple updates in there as well.
I think for the Voyager launches the planets and the sun were aligned in such a way that the probes could be slingshotted around them to gain speed. I think such an alignment is quite rare?
It’s a bit more complicated than that. New Horizons actually went way faster than the Voyager probes, getting to Pluto in only 9.5 years. It took Voyager 2 just slightly longer than 12 years to reach Neptune for comparison. The planetary alignment you are thinking about was due to relative proximity. Obviously you can’t use Saturn to slingshot you to Uranus if they are on opposite sides of the solar system. All the outer planets were going to be on the same side of the solar system, allowing the Voyager probes to visit them all in succession.
It only happens every 400 years or so.
It’s pretty crazy to think about. The Voyager mission isn’t just a big thing for the current generations, but also for many future generations, who will not have as good an opportunity.
Humans will be extinct, and Voyager will still be carrying our mixtape through eternity.
Talk about a slow troubleshooting process. Thats, what, 80,000,000ms latency?
And any useful answer thread on stackoverflow is archived.
Your post “Received error code 0459 from 1981 JPL Transmitter Array” has been marked as a Duplicate.
Whenever someone tells me 1 GiB of RAM isn’t enough, i think of Voyager.
Let’s see Voyager load up Chrome real quick
Voyager is it’s own search engine. Why would it need chrome?
Voyager wasn’t written in JavaScript, to Web 2.0
Clearly they need to upload more RAM…
And still it won’t quit.
It is quite legit.
Some would say, too legit, even.
I get it. Sometimes my voice gets hoarse too.
