Chapter 6: The Triumph Of Voyager

Question 0

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 73

What is Gravity Assist and how is it useful for space travel?

Answer 0

(loosely paraphrased)Rocket propulsion(fuel&speed) are inadequate and unfeasible for Space Launches in interstellar space. GRAVITY ASSIST is employed by flying close to one planet and having its gravity fling us, like grabbing hold of a moving merry-go-round .

Question 1

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 72

What were the name of the first space craft to explore the Solar System?

Answer 1

Voyager I & II, launched August & September 1977, are the ships that first explored what may be homelands of our remote descendants.

Question 2

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 73b

What are the consequences of Gravity Assist?

Answer 2

GRAVITY ASSIST compensates the spacecrafts acceleration by a deceleration in the planets orbital motion around the sun.

Question 3

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 73c

JPL stand for?

Answer 3

NASA’s JPL (jet propulsion laboratory)

Question 4

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 76

What were some instruments utilized on the Voyagers?

Answer 4

Voyager Instruments:
Cameras
infrared & ultraviolet Spectrometers
Photopolarimeter

Question 5

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 75-76

Voyager Specifications:

Answer 5

Voyager (size & capacity)
•weighs 1 ton
•size of small house
•draws 400 watts of power from a generator that converts radioactive plutonium to electricity
•cost comparable to single modern strategic bomber

Question 6

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 80

The fate of Voyager 1 & 2

Answer 6

because of our wish to fly close to the mystery world Titan, Voyager 1 was flung by Saturn on a path that could never encounter any other known world; it is Voyager 2 that flew on to Uranus and Neptune with brilliant success.

Question 7

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 81

Voyagers’ Obsolete Technology

Answer 7

The Voyagers embody the technology of the early 1970s; if spacecraft were designed for such a mission today, they would incorporate stunning advances in artificial intelligence, in miniaturization, in data-processing speed, in the ability to self-diagnose and repair, and in the propensity to learn from experience. They would also be much cheaper.

Question 8

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 82

What did it cost the American Taxpayer for Voyager (‘77-‘85)?

Answer 8

Voyager cost each American less than a penny a year from launch (1977) to Neptune encounter(1985)