[olePigeon]

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story....d=12100002RDJ2

We're getting back all sorts of weird data, stuff we never knew about! Voyager 1 passed the termination shock a while back, but right now they're receiving the actual data as it finally reaches us.

After that, it hits the heliopause and it's officially left the gravitational effects of our sun.

What's disheartening is that the Voyager team was part of the big cuts at NASA and they'll be shutting 'em down. I mean, why?! Apparently Voyager 1 and 2 have enough juice to keep them going until 2020! Think of the stuff we'll discover.

Anyway, Voyager 1 and 2 are crusing at an average of about 3.45 AU a year (AU = the distance from Sol to Earth). Pretty exciting.

I can't wait until the data is analyzed further.

[m a d r a]

interesting stuff.

does anyone else think it funny that voyager is carrying what's basically a glorified LP record as earth's message to any alien life-forms who encounter the probe. let's hope the little green men havenae ditched vinyl in favour of the CD as well - or they'll never be able to read the fecker!

[olePigeon]

Dude, aliens have iPods.

[Pendergast]

Originally Posted by m a d r a

interesting stuff.

does anyone else think it funny that voyager is carrying what's basically a glorified LP record as earth's message to any alien life-forms who encounter the probe. let's hope the little green men havenae ditched vinyl in favour of the CD as well - or they'll never be able to read the fecker!

That is quite exciting. I do have a CD-ROM of those recordings. Neat!

[cavepainter]

Star Trek had an episode where a battered probe "Veejer" is looking for the 'creator' Selkirk. Wonder if anyone on that soon to be defunct NASA crew has that name (like maybe the 'Project Manager'?)

[Salty]

What's the termination shock?

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Salty

What's the termination shock?

RTFL.

-t

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by cavepainter

Star Trek had an episode where a battered probe "Veejer" is looking for the 'creator' Selkirk. Wonder if anyone on that soon to be defunct NASA crew has that name (like maybe the 'Project Manager'?)

That would be the first Star Trek movie.

Originally Posted by Salty

What's the termination shock?

[RAILhead]

Originally Posted by Salty

What's the termination shock?

It's the point where our sun's solar wind first "touches" interstellar space.

Maury

[Salty]

Originally Posted by RAILhead

It's the point where our sun's solar wind first "touches" interstellar space.

Maury

Ahh I see... well our Sun should learn to keep it's solar winds to itself, it's not nice to go touching interstellar space without it's consent...

[SVass]

If you look on page 24 of the October issue of Scientific America, the forces acting on the Pioneer spacecraft may indicate that Newtonian mechanics (and theory) may require modification at large distances. So these orbits should be analysed. sam

[cjrivera]

Originally Posted by m a d r a

interesting stuff.

does anyone else think it funny that voyager is carrying what's basically a glorified LP record as earth's message to any alien life-forms who encounter the probe. let's hope the little green men havenae ditched vinyl in favour of the CD as well - or they'll never be able to read the fecker!

The aliens probably have an illegal copy of the message in mp3 form downloaded from Napster or Bitorrent anyway.

[Y3a]

Not only does it carry an "LP" but a phono cartidge to play it!

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by cavepainter

Star Trek had an episode where a battered probe "Veejer" is looking for the 'creator' Selkirk. Wonder if anyone on that soon to be defunct NASA crew has that name (like maybe the 'Project Manager'?)

Actually you've mixed the Original Series episode "Changeling" and the first movie, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." In the episode, a space probe called "Nomad" encountered-probably ran into-an alien probe called "Tan-Ru," and the resulting hybrid became a menace to Earth. In the movie, "Voyager 6" fell into "what they used to call a black hole" and apparently emerged somewhere else, where a machine intelligence rebuilt and repaired it into something that could grow...

In one or another of the Star Trek novels they actually specified that Veejer was repaired by the Borg-an early version of them, anyway.

[RAILhead]

The first bold woman I ever had the hots for, Persis Khambatta:

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by RAILhead

The first bold woman I ever had the hots for, Persis Khambatta:

So yah, much gooder without hair.



-t

[Weyland-Yutani]

V'Ger. The entity's name in Star Trek the Motion Picture.

Of all the Star Trek stuff, episodes and movies I have never been even remotely interested or impressed by any of it. Boring, all of it.

However, Star Trek the Motion Picture (the first one) was a smashing movie! Good plot, sexy gal, a plot twist and a movie feel to it. It had intelligence and an epic feel that wasn't seen ever again in Star Trek. Unlike all the other Star Trek movies which seem like they're just long TV episodes. There is nothing epic about them.

The Star Trek fans AFAIK hate the first movie the most. Ironic.

V'Ger was also the code name for one of the G4 chips by Motorola used in the Macintosh.

cheers

W-Y

[D. Hendrickson]

you're joking. everyone knows odd-numbered Trek movies suck...

[lurkalot]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story....d=12100002RDJ2

We're getting back all sorts of weird data, stuff we never knew about! Voyager 1 passed the termination shock a while back, but right now they're receiving the actual data as it finally reaches us.

After that, it hits the heliopause and it's officially left the gravitational effects of our sun.

What's disheartening is that the Voyager team was part of the big cuts at NASA and they'll be shutting 'em down. I mean, why?! Apparently Voyager 1 and 2 have enough juice to keep them going until 2020! Think of the stuff we'll discover.

Anyway, Voyager 1 and 2 are cruising at an average of about 3.45 AU a year (AU = the distance from Sol to Earth). Pretty exciting.

I can't wait until the data is analyzed further.

I agree. Given the nature of the extended Voyager missions and the territory they now explore it is hard to fathom why funds would no longer be available for them. How can exploration of the outer limits of our solar system not be an endeavor worth funding while the data is still coming back reliably? How can a space agency not be given permission to explore such a frontier of space? Only shortsighted, unimaginative bookkeepers can come up with priorities like that. Truly bizarre. I hope the budget proposals/decisions are altered.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by D. Hendrickson

you're joking. everyone knows odd-numbered Trek movies suck...

Nemesis was pretty sucky, and that's ane even numbered Trek.

[jcadam]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

Nemesis was pretty sucky, and that's ane even numbered Trek.

None of the next-gen Trek movies were very good. First Contact was the best of the bunch, and it was only 'reasonably decent.'

Nemesis was truly awful. The worst Trek film EVAR. Worse than Search for Spock, even.


Back on topic, I wonder if we were to build a probe for the express purpose of exploring the edge of the solar system, if we could get it there in a reasonable time frame (as opposed to Voyager I, which is just now in that region of space, and is older than I am). Perhaps ion-drive + nuclear reactor would be the answer here? Of course, we still need to find a means of FTL communication to really make deep-space missions work.

[RIRedinPA]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story....d=12100002RDJ2

We're getting back all sorts of weird data, stuff we never knew about! Voyager 1 passed the termination shock a while back, but right now they're receiving the actual data as it finally reaches us.

After that, it hits the heliopause and it's officially left the gravitational effects of our sun.

What's disheartening is that the Voyager team was part of the big cuts at NASA and they'll be shutting 'em down. I mean, why?! Apparently Voyager 1 and 2 have enough juice to keep them going until 2020! Think of the stuff we'll discover.

Anyway, Voyager 1 and 2 are crusing at an average of about 3.45 AU a year (AU = the distance from Sol to Earth). Pretty exciting.

I can't wait until the data is analyzed further.

I read the article and it raised two questions for me - maybe some of the more scientifically inclined can answer:

"This bubble is formed by the solar wind -- electrically charged particles that blow out from the sun at a million miles per hour."

Why isn't Earth (or the other planets) affected by the solar wind, or if we are, how? I would think anything moving at a million miles per hour would be noticeable in some fashion.

"The termination shock gets its name from the shockwave produced by the slowing of the solar wind. This shockwave is similar to the sonic boom that occurs on Earth when an airplane crosses the subsonic-supersonic barrier."

Does it make an actual noise?

Thanks

[RAILhead]

Solar wind pretty much only affects Earth's magnetic field by compressing it on the sun-facing side. This shape change can mess with certain electronic equipment, but to more specifically answer your question, you and I aren't running a risk of being "hit" by anything from Sol. Since the particles from Sol are charged, Earth's magnetic sphere absorbs the vast majority of them.

As to your second question, there's no sound in vacuum.

HTH,
Maury

[SVass]

Originally Posted by RIRedinPA

I read the article and it raised two questions for me - maybe some of the more scientifically inclined can answer:

"This bubble is formed by the solar wind -- electrically charged particles that blow out from the sun at a million miles per hour."

Why isn't Earth (or the other planets) affected by the solar wind, or if we are, how? I would think anything moving at a million miles per hour would be noticeable in some fashion.

"The termination shock gets its name from the shockwave produced by the slowing of the solar wind. This shockwave is similar to the sonic boom that occurs on Earth when an airplane crosses the subsonic-supersonic barrier."

Does it make an actual noise?

If a single atom is moving away from the sun at "one million miles per hour" and collides with the earth, it won't have much effect. I assume that the solar wind is not dense. I believe that these particles cause the aurora borealis and the aurora australis.

Sound is a pressure wave in an atmosphere and thus, technically, there is a "noise". sam

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by turtle777

So yah, much gooder without hair.

Kinda reminds me of Aishwarya Rai, except Rai is better looking.

[D. Hendrickson]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

Nemesis was pretty sucky, and that's ane even numbered Trek.

well to get technical, the rule existed before there were Next Gen movies, so it really only applies to 1-6.

The Motion Picture, Search for Spock and Final Frontier - bad.
Wrath of Khan, Voyage Home and Undiscovered Country - good.

Khan being the best.

Nemesis the worst. though FF gives it a good run...

[JoshuaZ]

khaaaaaaaaaan!

[- - e r i k - -]

It's not Veejer. It's V'ger. As in V-oy-ager. This was an important plot-point if I remember correctly.

Not a startrek geek

[RAILhead]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

It's not Veejer. It's V'ger. As in V-oy-ager. This was an important plot-point if I remember correctly.

Not a startrek geek

Yes, select letters in the name were covered in dust so that it only read V GER

Mayrt

[jcadam]

Originally Posted by D. Hendrickson

well to get technical, the rule existed before there were Next Gen movies, so it really only applies to 1-6.

The Motion Picture, Search for Spock and Final Frontier - bad.
Wrath of Khan, Voyage Home and Undiscovered Country - good.

Khan being the best.

Nemesis the worst. though FF gives it a good run...

I did actually like The Motion Picture (except the uniforms, which looked like a cross between pajamas and hospital scrubs). I feel as though I can exclude it from the even/odd numbered rule, since TMC had no number assigned to it, unlike all of its sequels.

Trek needs a break. It should return in a few years as a movie franchise ONLY. IMHO.

And Nemesis wasn't just piss poor like Search for Spock and Generations. It was horrendously, mind-numbingly BAD to the point of being ridiculous. See Wang's pictorial plot synopsis

[D. Hendrickson]

Originally Posted by RAILhead

Yes, select letters in the name were covered in dust so that it only read V GER

Mayrt

the Borg weren't very tidy were they?

[D. Hendrickson]

Originally Posted by jcadam

I did actually like The Motion Picture (except the uniforms, which looked like a cross between pajamas and hospital scrubs). I feel as though I can exclude it from the even/odd numbered rule, since TMC had no number assigned to it, unlike all of its sequels.

most people would prob'ly concede that point, being the first it stands on it's own.

still not as good as 2, 4 & 6...