Hola Voyager 2
NASA has a cool page that lets you see what the (Deep Space Network) is talking to at any given time here: Deep Space Network Now
Today they are chatting with Voyager 2,
a spacecraft that launched the year after I was born. It has been
flying for almost 40 years without any hands-on maintenance or repair.
That’s an achievement.
I’m
awestruck that the spacecraft is still alive, but they are still doing
useful science with it. Right now, today, they are communicating with
it to download science data.
So how does this communication compare to the WiFi in my house?
The received signal strength on Earth is 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 133 watts of power.
The WiFi in my house is 0.075 watts.
On my WiFi I can download 150 Megabytes per second.
Voyager 2 is transmitting at 159 bits per second.
Voyager 2 is transmitting at 159 bits per second.
This blog post, not counting
the images and links is 1,294 8-bit bytes. For us to transmit this blog
entry to Voyager it would take over a minute just to send the message.
Then it would take 32 hours for the message to travel the 17,300,000,000
kilometers to get to the spacecraft and the “OK” message to travel back
to us on Earth.
Godspeed, Voyager 2. Please tell them we’re coming; It’s just taking a bit longer than planned.
Comments
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Hi Elizabeth,
thank you for the blog about the Voyager spacecraft, it brings happy memories for me,
I was little older than you - when the spacecraft was launched, at the age of about 6 or 7 years sitting at my parents "mudhouse" in rural Algeria reading a magazine in Arabic about the launch, it was magical! the first thing I ever remember reading about something that I understood and still remember ... if you can imagine the imagination of a 7 yrs old ... it was and still is for me out of this world!!, indeed it became out of this world!
For me Voyager is symbol of so many things: first and foremost the human intellect and curiosity at it's best, the american technological superiority (was - sadly not much now) ... etc ...
I am tough ol nut but each time I think of Voyager it gives me shivers down my spine!: how far it is, something that is going one way never to return, what if it meet aliens, what would they make of it? a piece of scientific marvel or a tin can.
What if the craft can convey message to the alien race ... what would SHE say about humans back home: civilized yet they can be savages to each other!
I watched the livefeed on youtube when Cassini was made to "commit suicide" on by crashing onto Saturn, I was sad to see that - I think I will sad when the day comes when we no longer hear from our girl far far away ... calling her ... but silence!
AM bookmarking your blog, keep up the good work,
Said.