Voyager instrument cooling after heater turned off
Artist's concept of NASA's Voyager spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
(PhysOrg.com) -- In order to reduce power consumption, mission managers have turned off a heater on part of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, dropping the temperature of its ultraviolet spectrometer instrument more than 23 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit). It is now operating at a temperature below minus 79 degrees Celsius (minus 110 degrees Fahrenheit), the coldest temperature that the instrument has ever endured.
This heater shut-off is a step in the careful management of the diminishing electrical power so that the Voyager spacecraft can continue to collect and transmit data through 2025.
At the moment, the spectrometer continues to collect and return data. It was originally designed to operate at temperatures as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius (minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit), but it has continued to operate in ever chillier temperatures as heaters around it have been turned off over the last 17 years. It was not known if the spectrometer would continue working, but since 2005, it has been operating at minus 56 degrees Celsius (69 degrees Fahrenheit.) So engineers are encouraged that the instrument has continued to operate, even after the nearby heater was turned off in December. (The spectrometer is likely operating at a temperature somewhat lower than minus 79 degrees Celsius, or minus 110 degrees Fahrenheit, but the temperature detector does not go any lower.)
Scientists and mission managers will continue to monitor the spectrometer's performance. It was very active during Voyager 1's encounters with Jupiter and Saturn, and since then an international team led by scientists in France has been analyzing the spectrometer's data.
This latest heater shut-off was actually part of the nearby infrared spectrometer, which itself has not been operational on Voyager 1 since 1998.
Provided by
JPL/NASA
-
From lemons to lemonade: Reaction uses carbon dioxide to make carbon-based semiconductor,
32 comments
-
Thioridazine kills cancer stem cells in human while avoiding toxic side-effects of conventional cancer treatments,
3 comments
-
SpaceX private rocket blasts off for space station (Update),
42 comments
-
Climate scientists say they have solved riddle of rising sea,
31 comments
-
SpaceX capsule has 'new car' smell, astronauts say (Update),
4 comments
-
Distance of planets from stars and revolution
6 hours ago
-
revamping general concept and cosmological principle
May 25, 2012
-
Transiting Exoplanet Light Curve
May 25, 2012
-
Math behind Theoretical Physics
May 24, 2012
-
Do we know whats at the center of galaxies yet?
May 23, 2012
-
Structure of the Milky Way?
May 20, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - General Astronomy
More news stories
Land and sea species differ in climate change response: study
(Phys.org) -- Marine and terrestrial species will likely differ in their responses to climate warming, new research by Simon Fraser University and Australia’s University of Tasmania has found.
4 hours ago |
3.7 / 5 (3) |
5
|
Yale study concludes public apathy over climate change unrelated to science literacy
Are members of the public divided about climate change because they don't understand the science behind it? If Americans knew more basic science and were more proficient in technical reasoning, would public consensus match ...
6 hours ago |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
11
|
10 million years needed to recover from mass extinction
It took some 10 million years for Earth to recover from the greatest mass extinction of all time, latest research has revealed.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
6 hours ago |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
|
Sophisticated simulations predict future warming
The chances of our planet being hit by a global warming of 3 degrees Celsius by 2050 is as likely as it being hit by an increase of 1.4 degrees, new research shows. Presented in the journal Nature Geoscience, the British study ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 22, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (9) |
51
Aliens don't want to eat us, says former SETI director
Alien life probably isn’t interested in having us for dinner, enslaving us or laying eggs in our bellies, according to a recent statement by former SETI director Jill Tarter.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 25, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (14) |
41
Stunning image of smallest possible five-ringed structure
Scientists have created and imaged the smallest possible five-ringed structure – about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair – and you'll probably recognise its shape.
'Unzipped' carbon nanotubes could help energize fuel cells, batteries
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could replace some of the expensive platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to scientists at ...
Change in developmental timing was crucial in the evolutionary shift from dinosaurs to birds: study
At first glance, it's hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common. After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that ...
Computer model used to pinpoint prime materials for efficient carbon capture
When power plants begin capturing their carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases – and to most in the electric power industry, it's a question of when, not if – it will be an expensive undertaking.
T cells 'hunt' parasites like animal predators seek prey, study shows
By pairing an intimate knowledge of immune-system function with a deep understanding of statistical physics, a cross-disciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania has arrived at a surprising finding: T cells use a movement ...
Scientists develop ultra-sensitive test that detects diseases in their earliest stages
Scientists have developed an ultra-sensitive test that should enable them to detect signs of a disease in its earliest stages, in research published today in the journal Nature Materials.
Jan 18, 2012
Rank: 4.9 / 5 (22)
Jan 18, 2012
Rank: 5 / 5 (6)
True, I do love this project and am going to be sad when it runs out of power altogether, but remember that the more probes they send out there higher the increase in the amount of data to analyse!
Maybe they'll send another pair out when these have stopped being able to send information, only with better technology!
Jan 18, 2012
Rank: 2.7 / 5 (14)
Jan 18, 2012
Rank: 1.5 / 5 (10)
Jan 18, 2012
Rank: not rated yet
Jan 18, 2012
Rank: 5 / 5 (9)
The purpose built orbiters (voyagers were not made to orbit) like Galileo, Cassini, and MGS were vast improvements on Voyager design.) And of course the rovers and the Huygens probe were pretty cool to.
SpaceX is working on more bulk-like manufacturing of space tech. I forsee after a while they might build more than lift vehicles.
Jan 18, 2012
Rank: 5 / 5 (7)
The nearby universe isn't isotropic. Voyager already found shifting and turbulent heliopause. It would be interesting to map that in more directions than one.
Remember that the Voyager probes did a lot along the way: flybys of planets and moons, measurements of solar wind, etc.
They're not meant to be better at poking at the universe at large than other instruments we have.
Jan 18, 2012
Rank: 4 / 5 (3)
Therefore, maned missions which are 1000 times more expensive are preferred at the expensive of unmanned ones like this jewell of a spacecraft.
Jan 18, 2012
Rank: not rated yet
Jan 18, 2012
Rank: 1 / 5 (8)
I'm all for scientific exploration but the money has to come from somewhere and I believe people in the US and now Europe have more important things to spend their money on, like, oh I don't know... mortgages and what not.
Jan 18, 2012
Rank: 4.7 / 5 (11)
Science is the starving mangy dog under the barbarians' tables. We are tossed scraps and gristle while the warriors feast.
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Jan 18, 2012
Rank: not rated yet
I expect they meant to say they are having to work in a lower power envelop because the power plant constantly decays.
Jan 19, 2012
Rank: 1.3 / 5 (14)
Sweet sentiment but fundamentally flawed reasoning. The money spent on weaponry employs people that purchase goods from businesses that further employ people. This money does feed and clothe people, pay for education and health. Technological advances are made that enhance our lives through defense spending.
We don't give the guns or bombs or warships the money. We give people the money.
The only people who generally suffer from the US military industry, are those sad sacks that want to interfere or attack America.
God Bless America. Land of opportunity. Home of the brave.
Jan 19, 2012
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
But it might be that the power output is diminishing with time and that they need to shut down some parts to keep enough electricity for the essential parts.
Jan 19, 2012
Rank: 4.5 / 5 (6)
And in the people suffering from the US military industry, you forget the ones that have oil wanted by america, and also all the innocent people killed by error in the wars.
Jan 19, 2012
Rank: 1.3 / 5 (14)
Hmmm, headlines I did not see. Ethical scientists decline to develop atomic bomb - um nope. Outraged chemists say nerve gas weapons immoral - um nope. One million American service personal quit in protest of military spending - um nope.
Even with all that defence spending we sent Voyager on an awesome mission. Walked on the moon. Drive rovers on Mars.
Jan 19, 2012
Rank: 4.5 / 5 (11)
Defence is one thing (and is necessary), going to war abroad is another. I fail to see how the Irak war was a defense war.
When Voyager was sent, when America walked on the Moon, the defense budget was way lower than today.
And it has been a long time since an American walked on the Moon, I am 27 tomorrow, that means that since I was born, the Moon as seen no one. America could sent people on the Moon, today it can't even launch people in space..
Jan 19, 2012
Rank: 1 / 5 (11)
You quoted a one sided view from a US president. I am sure that there is a quote from a US president that insists the police action in Iraq was defensive. I am sad at your failure.
Oh, just because you say so? Given the increase in the rest of the worlds spending on weapons and adjusted for economic growth and inflation, are you sure? Provide a reference or you are just spouting false beliefs.
America can launch people into space almost whenever they choose. Just because the road-map to privatization, and exploration priorities, does not suit you is .. well, unfortunate for you.
SpaceX- to the space station soon. Virgin Galactic. Bigalow. Aerospace - all American space pioneering companies. Only in America the Great.
Jan 20, 2012
Rank: 5 / 5 (3)
Maybe topmost, explosives (modern industry wouldn't have gotten far without them. And Nobel (peace prize) became rich when his explosive technologies allowed an exponential leap in mining and construction projects.)
Medicine (gruesome I admit.) Lots of chemistry (besides explosives) and math, radar, jet engines, cryptology, meteorology, rockets (the whole space race to the moon was basically a military thing.)
And of course computers (not the original, usually women, mathematicians cranking out artillery trajectory charts) and then Arpanet (which became the Internet.)
(cont...)
Jan 20, 2012
Rank: 5 / 5 (4)
Really, only in recent times is military spending in such a grey area. Hopefully that trend continues, because it really sucks when military spending becomes your primary "necessity".
Jan 20, 2012
Rank: 5 / 5 (3)
No. Artsist and scientists share somthing: They are driven. They don't need a conflict, threat or pressure of any kind to give their utmost. They do it because it's fun.
Conflict has only the effect that a lot of resources are suddenly pumped into certain areas (usually military in nature) which allows scientists to realize more of their ideas at once. But conflict per se does not enhance human creativity/innovation.
Jan 21, 2012
Rank: not rated yet