Quote from: taylor on July 20, 2006, 11:17:04 AM
Hi Steph,
I believe they have already pointed one out there and it has been traveling for many years...if I recall right it has just recently traveled so far that they are no longer able to communicate with it... I believe it is also why they now realize why space is much larger than they had ever realized...I wish I could think of the name of the shuttle and all the details but I caught part of it I believe in NPR?
Maybe others will know what i am referring to?
Peace,
Taylor
Pioneer 10 & 11 are the first spacecraft to head out into deep space. The nuclear generators on both spacecraft are generating too little power to operate their transceivers, so contact has been lost.
Voyager 1 & 2 are heading out into deep space and are still in contact with NASA. Voyager 1 is just crossing terminal shock wave - where the sun's energy collides with the energy from other stars in the galaxy. The heliopause, the boundary between our solar system and true interstellar space should be reached in 2015. Voyager 2 will reach the heliopause about 10 years later.
Not bad for a couple of probes that are 25 years beyond their design lifetime!
Chaunte
BTW, the strength of the signal picked up daily by the Deep Space Network from Voyager 1 & 2 is approximately 10**-16 watts (0.0000000000000001 watts) A typical digital watch uses 50 billion times more energy than the radio signals from Voyager. Factoid courtesy of JPL.
