extreme robots nasas voyager

NASA Voyager spacecraft NASA twin spacecrafts, Voyager 1 and 2, were

launched almost 30 years ago in the summer of 1977. Since then, both

have been in operation constantly, 24/7. Voyager 1 holds the record

for being the human-made object that has traveled the furthest away

from our Earth. In fact, Voyager 1 recently reached a distance of 100

astronomical units (AU) from our sun (one AU is equal to the distance

between the Earth and the sun.) In other terms, as of August 15, 2006,

Voyager 1 will be at a distance of more than 15 billion kilometers

from the sum.

The Voyager spacecraft is a marvel of engineering. Both Voyager 1 and

2 were initially designed to operate during a 5 year mission but

because of their robust design both are still functioning and are

expected to remain online until 2020 when its onboard power generator

will no longer provide sufficient power to run its instruments.

"But what you can't predict is that the spacecraft isn't going to wear

out or break. Voyager 1 and 2 run 24 hours a day, seven days a week,

but they were built to last," says Voyager project scientist Dr. Ed

Stone. "The spacecraft have really been put to the test during their

nearly 30 years of space travel, flying by the outer planets, and

enduring such challenges as the harsh radiation environment around

Jupiter."

Voyager is actually a robot. It continuously computes its position by

observing the stars and it adjusts its attitude to keep its antenna

pointing towards Earth so that it can send us the valuable data it

collects with its scientific instruments. Voyager's onboard computer

decodes received commands, sequences all spacecraft activities,

performs fault detection and it applies corrective routines.

Currently, NASA maintains a team of 10 engineers who monitor the

spacecrafts' health ensuring that they operate flawlessly as they

cross the boundary of the heliopause and enter interstellar space.