Happy 4th of July to Voyager 1 & 2 from Audioholics

[admin]

Lately I’ve been editorializing science based stuff I happen upon online while taking a break from the A/V stuff. Despite I am an avid Audioholic, I am also a geeky science guy as well. I suppose they kinda go hand in hand, but nonetheless after reading about the successes of our Voyager spacecrafts it kinda fueled my American pride that when we put our minds to a challenge, we can prevail.


Discuss "Happy 4th of July to Voyager 1 & 2 from Audioholics" here. Read the article.

[Tomorrow]

"It amazes me how NASA is capable of making 30 year old technology transmit through billions of miles of space while I have difficulty getting my RF remote......."

I worked for the company that designed the codecs and modems for the Voyager craft. Some of our staff was at JPL during the launches. Simple explanation...the design is a pure Viterbi decoding algorithm. Viterbi and Irwin Jacobs founded Linkabit, later M/A-Com, later Qualcomm on this very simple idea. Super redundant digital error correcting is the key. By the way, those are 20 WATT (!!) transmitters sending those signals billions of miles. It is powered by an RTG (Radioisotope Thermal-Electric Generator). Heat from the isotopic decay of plutonium provides heat to the thermocouples that produce the electricity. Shortly after the design concluded with the spectacular V1 and V2 spacecrafts, I directed all the production of the codecs, modems and encryption equipment. (Sorry people...we also brought you, via HBO contracts, the world's first digitally encrypted television programming. )

If only our remotes were that cool!

EDIT: A very happy Independence Day to all of you from me, too.

[astrodon]

Those were exciting days when these 2 Voyagers went past the Jovian planets. I was out at the Kitt Peak National Observatory when Voyager 2 went past Neptune in 1989. In celebration, I slewed the telescope to Neptune and took a spectrum of the planet. (And before you ask, Voyager was far too small to be seen, even through very large telescopes.) These 2 spacecraft, and the 2 Pioneers (10 and 11) that preceded them, rewrote the books on planetary astronomy.

[Adam]

I was out at the Kitt Peak National Observatory...

Do you live by Kitt Peak? Just curious. Thanks.

[Tomorrow]

Those were exciting days when these 2 Voyagers went past the Jovian planets. I was out at the Kitt Peak National Observatory when Voyager 2 went past Neptune in 1989. In celebration, I slewed the telescope to Neptune and took a spectrum of the planet. (And before you ask, Voyager was far too small to be seen, even through very large telescopes.) These 2 spacecraft, and the 2 Pioneers (10 and 11) that preceded them, rewrote the books on planetary astronomy.

OH YEAH! The early days of space exploration were more exciting...than my first wife. (But that's another trip down Senility Lane, lol.) I yearn for the return to deep space exploration.

[Adam]

OH YEAH! The early days of space exploration were more exciting...than my first wife. (But that's another trip down Senility Lane, lol.) I yearn for the return to deep space exploration.

Tomorrow - an innuendo jumped into my head right away, but I'm guessing that you weren't intending one.

[Adam]

BTW, I agree with you all that those were some very exciting times for space exploration! Part of me wishes that I had been older, as I was too young to really appreciate it. I can remember going to a space museum with my dad when I was young. He was so excited about all of it, but I didn't quite get it. My generation grew up mostly with the shuttles, and the Mars exploration trips really impress me. Sometimes I lose track of the Mars mission objectives (we went to find ice, but didn't we already know it was there?), but it's still very impressive to me.

[Tomorrow]

Tomorrow - an innuendo jumped into my head right away, but I'm guessing that you weren't intending one.

LOL, I meant to say..."Which, for some reason reminds me...."

[astrodon]

Do you live by Kitt Peak? Just curious. Thanks.

No, during that time I worked at JILA (Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics) in Boulder, CO. I was there on an observing run using the solar McMath-Pierce Telescope during their night-time guest observer program. If you are familiar with Kitt Peak, that's the big triangular shaped building on the mountain -- see http://www.noao.edu/outreach/kptour/mcmath.html for details and pictures. I was carrying out coincident observations of Mira stars with the McMath's stellar spectrograph and the NASA space-based IUE (International Ultraviolet Explorer) telescope.

[gene]

Anyone catch the Mission to Mars series on Discovery HD hosted by William Shatner? This is pretty exciting though I am a bit disappointed most of the technology is recycled from the 60s. I wanted a 2010 type space ship