Post AVBeXdc9JPdwBA1KEK by vruba@everything.happens.horse
 (DIR) More posts by vruba@everything.happens.horse
 (DIR) Post #AVBeXbGo1nNkuO1FgW by glennf@twit.social
       2023-04-30T17:10:58Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       Missed the exciting news that the boffins at NASA JPL have figured out a way to use reserve power to keep using all the scientific instruments on board Voyager 2 for even longer. For a mission that only had a requirement to last until about 1982, job well done. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-voyager-will-do-more-science-with-new-power-strategySeveral years ago, I wrote extensively about space probes, including *six* articles about or involving the Voyager probes! https://glog.glennf.com/blog/2017/8/4/if-you-love-voyager-like-i-love-voyager
       
 (DIR) Post #AVBeXc1xCV61Gc4uAq by glennf@twit.social
       2023-04-30T17:39:06Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       The Voyager mission was full of incredibly clever ways to extend the probes’ lives:* Using backup computers for image compression for Neptune & Uranus (Voyager 2)* Including highly efficient error-correction encoding hardware onboard that took *years* to develop the decoder for (improving data rate efficiency)* Making use of an expand deep space network* Incredibly careful energy budgeting that has added probably a decade to the probes’ lives
       
 (DIR) Post #AVBeXcvxqFto4KHdTc by glennf@twit.social
       2023-04-30T17:44:21Z
       
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       * Solving a lubricant problem on the camera tracking system that allowed it to take non-blurry photos! https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/27/us/camera-swivel-on-voyager-sticks-while-craft-passes-behind-saturn.htmlData compression and error-correction algorithms sound fairly boring. But these improvements plus the DSN expansion meant that vastly more data could be sent as the Voyagers moved past Jupiter.
       
 (DIR) Post #AVBeXdc9JPdwBA1KEK by vruba@everything.happens.horse
       2023-04-30T17:51:53Z
       
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       @glennf Just camping out in the replies here to make friends with other people affronted by “sound fairly boring”.
       
 (DIR) Post #AVBeXhemHa7eiTHTsm by glennf@twit.social
       2023-04-30T19:11:53Z
       
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       @vruba I will never get over that when they sent a Reed-Solomon encoder into space, there were no Reed-Solomon decoders *on Earth*.
       
 (DIR) Post #AVBeXi7qXVNIAcshBw by MikeTRose@saturation.social
       2023-04-30T19:13:51Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @glennf @vruba shame we sent the prototype thataway
       
 (DIR) Post #AVBfMLxohD5KCoL1V2 by glennf@twit.social
       2023-04-30T19:23:06Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @MikeTRose @vruba Build the decoder on the way down
       
 (DIR) Post #AVC6he5VCiZDGAJJ7w by grammargirl@zirk.us
       2023-05-01T00:29:28Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @glennf Nice use of "boffins"!