News: 1596177367

It's not forced to upgrade to Windows 10

Windows 1.0 was released in 1985 (and MS-DOS in 1981) by which time Voyager 1 was long gone.

The 150 AU mark is essentially meaningless – there’s nothing out there to mark the distance.

All those images on the internet explaining the probe's path indicate lines in space. Therefore, there must be some line out there. Are you sure that there is no 150 AU mark out there in the cold and dark? All those images indicate so many lines, which suggests that some kind of traffic control out in space may have been established(*).

But I guess we all can agree that the longevity of the probe is a homage to engineering and science(**).

(*) maybe it is for marking the intergalactic hyperspaceway?

(**) maybe the Vogons can appreciate engineering and science when they find the necessary paperwork in triplicate under the gold disc.

Perish the thought that the Vogons should find Voyager, they would probably wipe the disc, record some poetry onto it and send it back to Earth.

(Along with a demolition notice)

Some of the lines on my street have worn away in the last 30 years, I expect the 4+ billion year old paint out there is pretty faded by now.

What we must really be thankful for is that Voyager got past the line safely and did not crash into it. At those speeds, even a worn-out remnant can have a devastating impact.

Might be my brain but upon reading this article I just found myself earwormed by Gene Pitney singing "150AU from Tulsa"

Given the 1960's era technology in the Voyager spacecraft (they are basically modified Mariner spacecraft buses with a specialised payload), it just shows that some people back then really knew how to build something to last. Hats off, and raising a glass to all those on the Voyager programme over the decades.

Damn right.

Absolutely, and it's an interesting constrast to modern technology in that those producing the PDF in 2020 (that El Reg linked to) haven't figured out how to place the "Page X of 19" text slightly lower so that the line doesn't go right through it!

Ditto.

Similar point and may be apocryphal but when Rolls Royce were asked why, almost half a century later, they were still using a universal joint first developed in the ‘20’s in their cars’ rear axles, they answered sniffily that “Just because something is newer does not mean it is better.”

Another story about Rolls-Royce - probably an urban legend but funny never-the-less.

Someone was touring Africa (probably in the 1950s) in their Rolls-Royce when it broke down. They managed to get it to a local garage, but the problem was initially beyond them - basically a critical part was broken and they had to fly the replacement out from the UK before the car was able to proceed on its journey. When the owner of the car returned to the UK he expected to find an invoice for the cost of the part its delivery to the back-end of no-where. No invoice, and none were sent to him over the next 6 months, so he contacted Rolls-Royce to find out what had happened. There response was to say that they had no record of the event, since "their cars simply do not break down".

There was a time when Rolls had that attitude, John Dodd of Merlin engined Roller fame was the engineer of choice for my father when he had gearbox problems with his Rover Coupe.

The Old man took his car to Dodds workshop only to be told 'I can't do the box for a few days, I have to fly to Brazil'.

John Dodd was an accredited Rolls gearbox engineer, they flew him and another mechanic with a gearbox to Brazil to change a broken one for no charge to the owner for the reason stated.

https://www.classicdriver.com/en/article/cars/john-dodd-and-merlin-engined-monstrosity-infuriated-rolls-royce

> “Just because something is newer does not mean it is better.”

True more often than not in my experience.

Nowadays "Newer" tends to be a synonym for "More expensive, but built more cheaply". The desire to squeeze the most profit tends to this result, along with "engineered failure", which one of those travesties of the modern world that really get my goat.

Pint, as its Friday, and the best weather for it!

TBH that is a bit of a half-truth. Its design lifetime was a heck of a lot shorter. They built rock-solid so it would survive the Van Allen belts, cosmic rays, residual molecules and the occasional dust particle.

What they never predicted was that during its design life, Earthbound technology would advance so much. Massive improvements in ground-based comms equipment, plus power-saving software upgrades, are the true secrets of its longevity.

But --->

If only washing machines, phones, TVs etc were as well made today...! Well done to NASA and all concerned.

To be fair, for what NASA pay for spacecraft, you could either get a solid gold washing machine that would last for decades - or just buy a full-service launderette, and have the staff do yours.

Total feat of engineering

In some ways Voyager 1 & 2 are reminders of a very different time period: fresh from the successes of the Apollo missions and before the retreat to LEO. Back when people still had fantasies about moon colonies and human-crewed spaceships zipping through this solar system and beyond.

It's hopeful that after decades of a hiatus in significant progress humanity now seems intent on moving beyond LEO once again. With currently Voyager 1 & 2 our only probes in outer space, and a few craft zipping on and around the Moon and Mars it will be a while before we can hope to recapture the spirit of the 1960s, let alone exceed our achievements of those decades.

Politics aside, the achievements of the 1950s through the 1970s in rocketry and spaceflight didn't push just engineers to the limits of their skills, but also brought people together in very real ways that still last today. To have people from Earth exploring a body that is not part of Earth, and to which no nation can lay a claim. The photos of which brings back the sobering realisations of Sagan's 'Pale Blue Dot'. To accept the empty beauty of outer space as our probes' sensors explore it for the very first time.

Just one of the many reasons to be grateful for the people who made the Voyager program possible and are keeping it running today. For reminding us humans of our exciting yet very humbling place in this vast universe.

On the subject of which:

Lessons learned from (and since) the Voyager 2 flybys of Uranus and Neptune

Heidi B. Hammel

More than 30 years have passed since the Voyager 2 fly-bys of Uranus and Neptune. I discuss a range of lessons learned from Voyager, broadly grouped into process, planning, and people. In terms of process, we must be open to new concepts: reliance on existing instrument technologies, propulsion systems, and operational modes is inherently limiting. I cite examples during recent decades that could open new vistas in exploration of the deep outer Solar System. Planning is crucial: mission gaps that last over three decades leave much scope for evolution both in mission development and ...

https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.08340

You're being a bit of a grumpy old pessimist. Not that I dissapprove, that's surely the correct attitude to take to life for an El Reg Commentard - grey of beard, long of tooth, arthritic hands still firmly gripping their cattleprod...

But nowadays we have the ISS, which definitely brings nations together in space. And I'd imagine that relations with Russia would be even worse without that link. Plus cooperation between them continuing into the lunar gateway.

We've still got engineers pushing the envelope of available technologies - after all who'd have thunk 20 years ago that a private company (SpaceX) would launch a payload on 3 rockets glued together and then land all 3 separately for later re-use? 2 nicely synchronised back at Kennedy Space Centre and one on a barge in the middle of the ocean!

We're living at the start of a new golden age of space research and technology.

Then we've got the New Horizons probe off looking for a Kuyper Belt object or two to take a peek at, having had a good long ogle at Pluto. A whole fleet of rovers on Mars - and we've landed on comets.

Not to mention all those lovely space telescopes. This very publication did a nice piece this week on the SOHO solar observatory. Hubble of course, with all those lovely images. But SOHO leads to my last point. Improvements in software don't get the glory, but they're the other technological leap that's revolutionising space science. SOHO was admittedly broken by cock-ups in software, so we need to be careful, but then it was also saved by new software development - as was Kepler - where the failure was mechanical, in the reaction wheels. That story was also covered well by El Reg.

Also, not only are we in a golden age of space - but I think there's a better chance of it being sustainable. Britain cancelled Black Arrow because the commercial market told the government it didn't even want a single launch per year, and neither did the government. Nowadays governments are spending more on space, but lots of it is on capabilities and science rather than just glory. Plus we've got SpaceX, Blue Origin, RocketLab and all sorts of others - and a healthy constellation of satellites that someone is eventually going to offer to repair/refuel - and that's what I'd expect to be paying for the first commercial astronauts.

It's a reminder of the fact that the nearest solar systems are light years away and we have managed 20 minutes in 45 years.

The thought that struck me was that it's been on the go for 45 years and covered 22,290,082,734 km without any physical human intervention....yet only a few days ago a light came on in my 2-year old car to say that it was time for it's third service because it'd been driven 30,000 miles.

20 minutes hours in 45 years.

But yeah - it does put it in perspective!

the thing will hit the wall that has all the stars painted on it.

Seriously, though - this is one of mankinds marvels.

Which could very well outlast mankind.

this calls for a quote (abbreviated, mind you ;)

The big GSV was already moving, rolling and twisting to point directly upwards out of the system.

(...)

It moved off, not especially quickly. Its Displacers had switched to pick rather than put now; in a matter of seconds they had snapped almost its entire fleet of smaller ships out of the system, their genuine yet deceptive delivery missions completed. Only the furthest, most massive vessels were left behind.

The Sleeper Service accelerated smoothly away into the darkness, already well clear of the system. It began to Induct, flittering between inferior and superior hyperspace. Its apparent real-space velocity jumped almost instantly by a factor of exactly twenty-three. Again, the Yawning Angel was comforted to see, spot on. No unpleasant surprises. The superlifter Charitable View raced after the fleeing craft, its engines unstressed, energy expenditure throttled well back, also threading its way between the layers of four-dimensional space. The process had been compared to a flying fish zipping from water to air and back again, except that every second air-jump was into a layer of air beneath the water, not above it, which was where the analogy did rather break down.

(...)

Three hours, twenty-six minutes and seventeen seconds after setting off, the General Systems Vehicle Sleeper Service reached its nominal Terminal Acceleration Point. This was where it ought to stop gaining speed, plump for one of the two hyperspatial volumes and just cruise along at a nice steady velocity.

It didn't. Instead it accelerated harder; that .54 figure zoomed quickly to .72, the Plate class's normal design maximum.

(...)

The Sleeper Service's acceleration factor had started to increase. Almost at the same time, it had exceeded its normal maximum sustainable velocity.

Fascinated, appalled, terrified, the Yawning Angel listened to a running commentary on the other GSV's progress from its increasingly distant child, even as it started the sequence of actions and commands that would lead to its own near-instant departure. Twelve minutes early, but that couldn't be helped, and if people were pissed off, too bad.

(...)

The superlifter's continuous report went on: the Sleeper Service's acceleration kept on increasing slowly but steadily, then it paused, dropping to zero; the craft's velocity remained constant. Could that be it? It was still catchable. Panic over?

Then the fleeing ship's velocity increased again; as did its rate of acceleration. Impossible!

(...)

Dear holy shit, if it was all engine even the superlifter wouldn't be able to keep up with it. The average Plate class could sustain about one hundred and four kilolights more or less indefinitely; a good Range class, which was what the Yawning Angel had always been proud to count itself as, could easily beat that by forty kilolights. A Cliff class superlifter was ninety per cent engine; faster even than a Rapid Offensive Unit in short bursts. The Charitable View could hit two-twenty-one flat out, but that was only supposed to be for an hour or two at a time; that was chase speed, catch-up speed, not something it could maintain for long.

The Charitable View's tone had already turned from one of amusement to amazement, then bewilderment. Now it was plain peevish. The Sleeper Service was topping the two-fifteen mark and showing no signs of slowing down. The superlifter would have to break away within minutes if it didn't top-out soon. It asked for instructions.

(...)

The Sleeper Service went on accelerating. The superlifter Charitable View gave up the chase at two-twenty. It settled back to a less frenetic two hundred, dropping back all the time; even so it was still not a speed it could maintain for more than a few hours.

The Yawning Angel topped out at one forty-six.

The Sleeper Service finally hit cruise at around two-thirty-three and a half, disappearing ahead into the depths of galactic space. The superlifter reported this but sounded like it couldn't believe it.

The Yawning Angel watched the other GSV race away into the everlasting night between the stars, a sense of hopelessness, of defeat, settled over it.

(...)

Two hundred and thirty-three thousand times the speed of light. Dear holy fucking shit. The Yawning Angel thought there was something almost vulgar about such a velocity. Where the hell was it heading for? Andromeda?