Now for the inevitable, predictable Monty Python clip:
Now for the inevitable, predictable Monty Python clip:
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Thanks for the pointer...well worth a watch.
The above told me that the Voyager digital data tape recorder is driven by a rubber belt and uses 328 m of 1/2 inch 8 track tape, capable of holding 67 Mb data at launch. The total power available to the craft was 470 W at launch and that too degrades over time.
It's 67MB, or 536Mb.
And it's been that way since 2002. That's something I had not realised, thank you.
Whichever way one cuts it, it's a magnificent piece of engineering bearing in mind that an average PC is pretty much unusable garbage after a hand full of years.
The fact that NASA can communicate with it over millions and millions of miles is amazing frankly, bearing in mind my mesh system doesn't even reach the en-suite.
I agree.
That digital communications over such a distance is a) possible b) still effective in controlling Voyager is a marvel (IMO).
That the onboard computer can still be reprogrammed by those communications is somewhat astonishing. That there are digital to analogue converters onboard that can translate the messages to electromechanical devices to steer antennae etc stands as a monument to the depth of forethought and planning applied by the designers and constructors.
It does have a hint of Space Cowboys in it
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.