Voyager 1 Fires Up Thrusters After 37 Years

[mwc]

If you tried to start a car that's been sitting in a garage for decades, you might not expect the engine to respond. But a set of thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft successfully fired up Wednesday after 37 years without use.

 

Voyager 1, NASA's farthest and fastest spacecraft, is the only human-made object in interstellar space, the environment between the stars. The spacecraft, which has been flying for 40 years, relies on small devices called thrusters to orient itself so it can communicate with Earth. These thrusters fire in tiny pulses, or "puffs," lasting mere milliseconds, to subtly rotate the spacecraft so that its antenna points at our planet. Now, the Voyager team is able to use a set of four backup thrusters, dormant since 1980.

 

NASA/JPL

     It's this kind of thing that made, and makes, America great.  Too bad no one at the top gets that anymore.

 

          mwc

 

[Thurisaz]

In hopes that I'm not insulting anyone by accident, I'd say these things make humanity great.

[Fweethawt]

^^^ Because without the well-over-half the human population that doesn't believe in the sciences, don't think it should be funded and who are against just about any scientific and medical advancement -- the Voyager flight would have never been possible.

 

Yay for humanity...

[Thurisaz]

What? Scientists and such show the good in humanity, morontheists the worst. Clearly divided tasks

[Vigile]

2 hours ago, Fweethawt said:

^^^ Because without the well-over-half the human population that doesn't believe in the sciences, don't think it should be funded and who are against just about any scientific and medical advancement -- the Voyager flight would have never been possible.

 

Yay for humanity...

 

Why judge humanity by its worst instead of by its best? Averages don't matter when the envelope of development and knowledge are pushed.  If we're talking those who are against science, the citizens of the US are among the worst. The muslims you hate are oftentimes far ahead of us in this area. Especially Iran. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Iran

[Fweethawt]

1 hour ago, Vigile said:

 

Why judge humanity by its worst instead of by its best? Averages don't matter when the envelope of development and knowledge are pushed.  If we're talking those who are against science, the citizens of the US are among the worst. The muslims you hate are oftentimes far ahead of us in this area. Especially Iran. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Iran

And why give credit to the worst, when it's the best that drive these sorts of endeavors. 

 

And the Americans that you hate, built that piece of machinery. 

 

Let me know when Iranians get a mechanism driving itself billions of miles away -- then get back with me, m'kay?

 

(I know, I know... They'd already have one further out there if would just stop bombing them... Yeah, yeah...)

[Vigile]

14 minutes ago, Fweethawt said:

And why give credit to the worst, when it's the best that drive these sorts of endeavors. 

 

And the Americans that you hate, built that piece of machinery. 

 

Let me know when Iranians get a mechanism driving itself billions of miles away -- then get back with me, m'kay?

 

(I know, I know... They'd already have one further out there if would just stop bombing them... Yeah, yeah...)

 

I don't hate Americans. I rather like NASA in fact. I hate the American government (outside of NASA and a few other areas). 

 

Do you imagine that Americans did all this on their own? Good ol' American ingenuity that didn't require any help from the rest of the world? I hope not as that would be quite a fantasy. 

Iran has nothing to apologize for. Did you click the link? It's at the forefront of major tech and scientific breakthroughs that benefit humankind in many areas. No country is an island. 

[Fweethawt]

Well look at them go! Yay them.

 

Should all of humanity get credit for what they're doing? 

[Vigile]

4 hours ago, Fweethawt said:

Well look at them go! Yay them.

 

Should all of humanity get credit for what they're doing? 

 

Sure, like the engineers at NASA, they stand on the shoulders of those who came before them as they do stem cell research. Imagine if one day you are saved by the research of the Muslims. That would be a real kick in the head, huh? 

[Thurisaz]

Looking at how for a long time during the dark ages, when all of Europe was busy with blaming each other of heresy, muslim countries preserved the ancient knowledge and did quite some research, I'd say we're all saved daily by the (ancient) research of muslims. Everything is relative.

[Fweethawt]

47 minutes ago, Vigile said:

 Imagine if one day you are saved by the research of the Muslims. That would be a real kick in the head, huh? 

Why would it if they're just standing on the shoulders of those that came before them, too?

[Vigile]

1 hour ago, Fweethawt said:

Why would it if they're just standing on the shoulders of those that came before them, too?

 

Because it still amounts to a massive human accomplishment. You don't see trailer park dwelling wrestling fans pushing the envelope in terms of human development, right? 

[Fweethawt]

Not at all. Which is exactly why they shouldn't be included in the same group that gets credit for making these Great accomplishments. These accomplishments did not prove that Humanity as a whole is great. These accomplishments are great... the people that achieve them are great. All of humanity is not great because of what these people achieved. That's the only point that I tried to make in this thread. It doesn't matter what country they live in. It doesn't matter what religion they believe in.

 

I'm a firm believer in giving credit where credit is due. I don't believe in giving credit to those that don't accomplish shit. That's 80% of the problem in the world we live in today. Everybody wants something without having to achieve it.

 

I know that's an extreme foreign concept to a lot of people nowadays but, there it is.

[Thurisaz]

Well that's certainly not wrong... sadly. Though one can always argue about the details.

[mwc]

16 hours ago, Thurisaz said:

In hopes that I'm not insulting anyone by accident, I'd say these things make humanity great.

     It's not an insult to me at least.

 

     I was just highlighting that we have this whole, idiotic, "Make America Great Again," thing going on and we're not doing anything towards that goal.  Nothing like these Voyager programs at least.  Just warmongering and empty rhetoric.  If we were at least trying to do something that inspired the world again I think that would go a long ways towards making America great again not to mention all of humanity.  But we're not.

 

          mwc

 

[mwc]

13 hours ago, Fweethawt said:

^^^ Because without the well-over-half the human population that doesn't believe in the sciences, don't think it should be funded and who are against just about any scientific and medical advancement -- the Voyager flight would have never been possible.

 

Yay for humanity...

     Personally, I believe that achievements that NASA made, and continue to make, help raise up all of humanity.  People everywhere were drawn to the moon landings.  It may have been the United States that landed on the moon but it was all of humanity that was brought together, for a moment, to witness that event.  It helped inspire people.  I think that these things continue to inspire people around the globe. 

 

          mwc

 

[Fweethawt]

3 hours ago, mwc said:

     Personally, I believe that achievements that NASA made, and continue to make, help raise up all of humanity.  People everywhere were drawn to the moon landings.  It may have been the United States that landed on the moon but it was all of humanity that was brought together, for a moment, to witness that event.  It helped inspire people.  I think that these things continue to inspire people around the globe. 

 

          mwc

 

Now this sentiment, I can get behind. The great achievements of great people inspired a vast amount of people and also gave many an unmerited sense of self-pride.

 

Was it a good thing? Yes.

 

Was it a good thing for humanity? Absolutely.

 

Is it a perfect example of the ripple effect that occurs when the best of us aspires to do their very best? Yep!

 

Does this make humanity, as a whole, great? No...

 

But it does give us direct insight into how much better we could be, as a whole, if the lesser 9/10 of us could get our heads out of our ass.

[mwc]

27 minutes ago, Fweethawt said:

Now this sentiment, I can get behind. The great achievements of great people inspired a vast amount of people and also gave many an unmerited sense of self-pride.

 

Was it a good thing? Yes.

 

Was it a good thing for humanity? Absolutely.

 

Is it a perfect example of the ripple effect that occurs when the best of us aspires to do their very best? Yep!

 

Does this make humanity, as a whole, great? No...

 

But it does give us direct insight into how much better we could be, as a whole, if the lesser 9/10 of us could get our heads out of our ass.

     "One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." -- Neil Armstrong

 

     It does make all humanity great to do great things.

 

     Maybe we just get there at different speeds.

 

          mwc

 

[duderonomy]

5 hours ago, mwc said:

     It's not an insult to me at least.

 

     I was just highlighting that we have this whole, idiotic, "Make America Great Again," thing going on and we're not doing anything towards that goal.  Nothing like these Voyager programs at least.  Just warmongering and empty rhetoric.  If we were at least trying to do something that inspired the world again I think that would go a long ways towards making America great again not to mention all of humanity.  But we're not.

 

          mwc

 

 

Well, since you referenced making America great again, I should point out (and not to bring up politics but as a matter of fact) that Trump wants NASA to reach for the stars again instead of Muslim outreach.

 

Other than that and not to you MWC but just saying in general, and IMHO, it was "American (AKA the United States) Exceptionalism" that has reached interstellar space and is still working with last century's tech successfully, so screw Iran, who in the Seventies was taking hostages at an embassy and celebrating that great accomplishment. 

 

Humanity my ass. It took a Christian country to do this while the Godless Soviets and the pals of Allah were mucking things up.  How's that for Science vs. Religion?

 

 

[mwc]

1 minute ago, duderonomy said:

 

Well, since you referenced making America great again, I should point out (and not to bring up politics but as a matter of fact) that Trump wants NASA to reach for the stars again instead of Muslim outreach.

 

Other than that and not to you MWC but just saying in general, and IMHO, it was "American (AKA the United States) Exceptionalism" that has reached interstellar space and is still working with last century's tech successfully, so screw Iran, who in the Seventies was taking hostages at an embassy and celebrating that great accomplishment. 

 

Humanity my ass. It took a Christian country to do this while the Godless Soviets and the pals of Allah were mucking things up.  How's that for Science vs. Religion?

 

 

     So far Trump has paid nothing but lip-service to NASA.  I don't think he understands who they are or what they do.

 

     We also shouldn't forget the United States built its space program on the back of the Nazi war machine.  It's (highly) unlikely we'd have made those moonshots in the time frame that we did had it not been for Wernher von Braun.  Had we not got those brilliant Germans the Soviets would have and we'd be singing a different tune.

 

          mwc

 

[duderonomy]

2 minutes ago, mwc said:

     So far Trump has paid nothing but lip-service to NASA.  I don't think he understands who they are or what they do.

 

     We also shouldn't forget the United States built its space program on the back of the Nazi war machine.  It's (highly) unlikely we'd have made those moonshots in the time frame that we did had it not been for Wernher von Braun.  Had we not got those brilliant Germans the Soviets would have and we'd be singing a different tune.

 

          mwc

 

 

So it seems that our German scientists were smarter than their German scientists. How did that happen?

I won't answer to the "lip service" stuff. The proof is in the pudding, whether I'm right or wrong, and this is going political, so I'm out. Peace!

[mwc]

11 minutes ago, duderonomy said:

 

So it seems that our German scientists were smarter than their German scientists. How did that happen?

     Because von Braun (et al.) chose to surrender to us instead of the Soviets?  I believe it ultimately became Operation Paperclip.

 

11 minutes ago, duderonomy said:

I won't answer to the "lip service" stuff. The proof is in the pudding, whether I'm right or wrong, and this is going political, so I'm out. Peace!

     Well, I just recall Trump proposing budget cuts of hundreds of millions of dollars ($500 million maybe?) this past summer.  That's not very good pudding.

 

          mwc

 

[Fweethawt]

He said the proof is IN the pudding. Not the proof IS the pudding. 

[Vigile]

3 hours ago, duderonomy said:

 

So it seems that our German scientists were smarter than their German scientists. How did that happen?

I won't answer to the "lip service" stuff. The proof is in the pudding, whether I'm right or wrong, and this is going political, so I'm out. Peace!

 

I don't know about smarter than. The soviets were first in space. 

[LogicalFallacy]

14 hours ago, Vigile said:

 

I don't know about smarter than. The soviets were first in space. 

 

Does anyone know how US Astronauts are getting onto the ISS at the moment?

 

That aside:

I think there is a correlation between whatever empire has world control to the achievements they make:

 

Greece, Rome, Muslims, Otterman Empire, British Empire and now the United States Empire.

 

It seems that when you are the big dog you can make shit happen!

 

I agree with the sentiment that we can view it as humanities achievement. From the Greek Eratosthenes who measured the earths circumference to accuracy of between 2 and 16 %, to the German scientists who were so influential in the 20th century, to the United States Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. We all owe much to those who have come before.