Wrote about the Voyager probes yesterday in my blog -
The two Voyager spacecraft are the greatest love letters humanity has ever sent into the void.
Voyager 2 actually launched first, on August 20, 1977, followed by Voyager 1 on September 5, 1977. Because Voyager 1 was on a faster, shorter trajectory (it used a rare alignment to slingshot past both Jupiter and Saturn quicker), it overtook its twin and became the farther, faster probe. As of 2025, Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object ever, more than 24 billion kilometers away, still whispering data home at 160 bits per second.
jmclnx•2mo ago
>still whispering data home at 160 bits per second.
And this always amazes me, I heard they need to coordinate some dishes throughout the world to pick up this signal sent by the voyagers.
Sanzig•2mo ago
I don't think they array between different DSN sites (getting the baselines sorted out would be a nightmare), but the DSN can array up to four of the 34 meter beam waveguide antennas co-located at any individual site.
The three sites were originally built with a single 70 meter dish each, which are all still operating today. However, when they expanded the sites, they opted to install at least four 34 meter BWG dishes at each site rather than adding a single 70 meter to each. Four of the 34s arrayed together gives the same gain as a 70, but you have the advantage of being able to split them up to communicate with separate spacecraft that don't need the gain of all four antennas. It gives DSN a lot more operational flexibility.
chistev•2mo ago
The two Voyager spacecraft are the greatest love letters humanity has ever sent into the void.
Voyager 2 actually launched first, on August 20, 1977, followed by Voyager 1 on September 5, 1977. Because Voyager 1 was on a faster, shorter trajectory (it used a rare alignment to slingshot past both Jupiter and Saturn quicker), it overtook its twin and became the farther, faster probe. As of 2025, Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object ever, more than 24 billion kilometers away, still whispering data home at 160 bits per second.
jmclnx•2mo ago
And this always amazes me, I heard they need to coordinate some dishes throughout the world to pick up this signal sent by the voyagers.
Sanzig•2mo ago
The three sites were originally built with a single 70 meter dish each, which are all still operating today. However, when they expanded the sites, they opted to install at least four 34 meter BWG dishes at each site rather than adding a single 70 meter to each. Four of the 34s arrayed together gives the same gain as a 70, but you have the advantage of being able to split them up to communicate with separate spacecraft that don't need the gain of all four antennas. It gives DSN a lot more operational flexibility.