Engineers at NASA say they have successfully revived thrusters aboard Voyager 1, the farthest spacecraft from our planet, in the nick of time before a planned communications blackout.
A side effect of upgrades to an Earth-based antenna that sends commands to Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, the communications pause could have occurred when the probe faced a critical issue — thruster failure — leaving the space agency without a way to save the historic mission. The new fix to the vehicle’s original roll thrusters, out of action since 2004, could help keep the veteran spacecraft operating until it’s able to contact home again next year.
Voyager 1, launched in September 1977, uses more than one set of thrusters to function properly. Primary thrusters carefully orient the spacecraft so it can keep its antenna pointed at Earth. This ensures that the probe can send back data it collects from its unique perspective 15.5 billion miles (25 billion kilometers) away in interstellar space, as well as receive commands sent by the Voyager team.
space is nuts.
Only a small portion of space is almonds, walnuts, and so on, less than half
much less than half
Is that before or after adjustment for the theoretical Macadamia Nebula?
Space is an appropriate name. It’s just a lot of space with some hydrogen and helium dispersed throughout.
The heavier elements we measure in stars are such a tiny % of matter they become negligible outside of stars.
And it’s big. We have no human way to comprehend how big it is. I fucking love space.
same. My field is biology but I love stars, planets, black holes, all that primordial shit you can just inject it straight into my veins I can’t get enough. I took an astronomy elective in university and it was pretty fun.
you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s
Explains why the universe is in a nutshell.