The pulses took that long to traverse the almost 13 billion miles that gossamer, long legged lil' Voyager from her original point of departure (one long college road trip, that) -- all while now sailing at a sprinters' pace, over 110,000 miles an hour, through interstellar space -- completely outside our solar system. So the command call and answer sequence alone. . . took almost two full days. But the back-up thrusters fired right up, and will now be employed to eventually re-orient Voyager so that it may continue to send communications back to Earth.
Those thrusters were last fired in early 1980. Yes -- that's thirty seven years ago. For a bit of perspective here -- I don't imagine your car would start, after thirty seven years sitting idle, in a freezer, at negative 280 degrees Fahrenheit.
But this firing is a testament to the "can do" ethos of the NASA teams (welded to a rock-solid understanding of electrical and chemical engineering, by select team members) of the 1960s, '70s. . . and beyond.
And as if that feat weren't enough, the instruction-sets, to refire the back-up thrusters were all written in "Assembler" -- a computer code very few still speak. So it was that the commands were spoken in a nearly dead language, retaught to youngsters (relatively speaking), by space scientists now past retirement age -- to continue Voyager's ability to phone home. At least through 2020, now, we believe.
You may read more about it all, here -- from the NASA website.
I just thought this would be better (more cheerful) Sunday fare, than the patently awful -- but sorely needed -- updating of the investigations of a sitting President, today. Enjoy your sunshine, all day -- as will I -- as it takes barely seven minutes to reach you, here 93 million miles from our sun. Smile.
[Oh -- and before I forget -- do go read the series: "Ten Years of Empty Wheel" posts. You will be glad you did. . . out.]
नमस्ते
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