Now and then Voyager
By Mark Tennent in Reader
Posted in Uncategorized on September 5, 2007 at 11:15 am
It was thirty years ago today when Voyager 1 started on its mission. Not quite seeking out new life-forms and splitting infinitives, but there’s still time. Voyager’s speed is now at roughly 34,000 mph or about 307 million miles per year – so great, even the Stig would be impressed.
Voyager 1 and 2 were designed originally to fly past every planet in the solar system. Even after the program was scaled back they only missed Pluto, still classed as a planet in the 1970s. In the 1990’s Voyager 1
zoomed past Pioneer 10, the then furthest man-made object. Today, Voyager 1 continues to collect data on a digital tape recorder which transmits it back to Earth every six months.
Powerful but powerless
The computing power controlling each Voyager are three 6.4MHz RCA 1802 CPUs. Although military strength they are about as fast as the average home computer of the early 1980s. The CPUs have managed the scientific instruments, navigated past all the planets, dealt with control and sequencing, fault detection and correction.
Originally they had ample electrical supply from the on-board plutonium powered generators but time has taken its toll, electric output is depleting and thermocouples degrading. Eventually, around 2020, power levels will be too low to support any of the scientific instruments and the Voyagers will turn off.
Unless, that is, one falls into a black hole, meets a race of hyper-intelligent machines who fix it, truncate it’s name and send it home.
Coincidentally…
It was thirty years ago today I got married. Since then I’ve not sought out a new life-form in case my head gets split infinitely as the frying pan crashes down on it. The Stig would definitely be unimpressed by the speed I can reach and I plan to keep going after 2020 as well.
But at least my computing power has come on a bit. Back then the best I had was still 4 years away – a 48k, 8-bit Spectrum also tape powered. Nowadays, Spectrum emulators on our current machines make Jet Set Willy so fast as to be virtually un-playable but at least Elite becomes less of a tedious trip.
However, a recent job involving a gazillion images made me realise it’s time for a new computer. The question is which to get, Windows, Linux, Solaris or Mac?
Stupid question, there’s only one worth having which will run them all. All I need are the readies and hope that Apple don’t bring out a newer, faster, cheaper Mac a day after I take delivery of mine.
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