What a voyage and still Going

I intended to post this earlier in the year but forgot, so I'm doing it now so that I can post something else about voyager, with the latest news - especially since it's been announced that it is now the only human made object to have left our solar system

Most Distant Spacecraft

The Voyager spacecraft will be the third and fourth human spacecraft to fly beyond all the planets in our solar system. Pioneers 10 and 11 preceded Voyager in outstripping the gravitational attraction of the Sun but on February 17, 1998, Voyager 1 passed Pioneer 10 to become the most distant human-made object in space.

The Golden Record

Both Voyager spacecrafts carry a greeting to any form of life, should that be encountered. The message is carried by a phonograph record - -a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages.

Present Status

As of March 2012, Voyager 1 was at a distance of 17.9 billion kilometers (119.9 AU) from the Sun.

Voyager 2 was at a distance of 14.7 billion kilometers (98.3 AU).

Voyager 1 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.6 AU per year.
Voyager 2 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.3 AU per year.

There are currently five science investigation teams participating in the Interstellar Mission. They are:

1. Magnetic field investigation
2. Low energy charged particle investigation
3. Cosmic ray investigation
4. Plasma Investigation (Voyager 2 only)
5. Plasma wave investigation

Five instruments onboard the Voyagers directly support the five science investigations. The five instruments are:

1. Magnetic field instrument (MAG)
2. Low energy charged particle instrument (LECP)
3. Cosmic ray instrument (CRS)
4. Plasma instrument (PLS)
5. Plasma wave instrument (PWS)

One other instrument is collecting data but does not have official science investigation associated with it:

6. Ultraviolet spectrometer subsystem (UVS), Voyager 1 only

Termination Shock

Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock in December 2004 at about 94 AU from the Sun while Voyager 2 crossed it in August 2007 at about 84 AU. Both spacecraft are now exploring the Heliosheath.

The Heliopause

While the exact location of the Heliopause is not known, it has been estimated that Voyager could reach this entry into interstellar space 10 years after crossing the Termination Shock.

Changes

Because I'm not very consistent writing here I have decided to simplify things. With that in mind I have removed the details and bibliography pages, including anything from them in this post. The gallery page remains, who knows I may put some new stuff on it?

Are we Unique?

It is believed there are a few hundred sextillion stars (about 1023) in the observable Universe. Now if you assume only 1 percent of these have small rocky planets and 1 percent of those are habitable, and of those 1 percent evolve multi-cellular life, it would mean 100 quadrillion (1017) instances of complex, potentially intelligent life in the universe.

While this seems a high number of potential instances of life, it would mean that on average if these were spread across the cosmos they would be separated by almost one million light years. 

Allowing that most stars are found in galaxies this equates approximately to a million instances of complex life in the Milky Way, separated by an average of only 300 light years. 

Obviously all this is speculation waiting for an answer.

Use Light right

To be alert in the day and sleep well at night

 Get lots of bright light during the day, especially in the morning - it will make you more alert, happier and help you sleep at night

As you get older you need more light during the day (especially blue light which resets the body clock

Dim the lights before bed-time i.e. no bright screens etc.

Maintain a consistent bed time and wake time from day to day.

Anytime spent in the dark makes your body clock more sensitive to light so don’t turn lights on during the night.

Avoid late in the day caffeine and develop a relaxing bedtime

If you still struggle to sleep try wearing amber coloured glasses in the hours before bedtime (filters out blue wavelengths).

Reading material

Butt T. (2010) The War Report: Waves are Resources. Surfers Against Sewage: Cornwall



Royal Society (2001) The role of land carbon sinks in mitigating global climate change. Document 10/01. Royal Society: London



Royal Society (2005) A guide to facts and fictions about climate change. Royal Society: London



Royal Society (2005) Ocean acidification due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Document  12/05. Royal Society: London



Royal Society (2008) Sustainable Biofuels: Prospects and challenges. Document 01/08. Royal Society: London

still not curious?

I thought it would be good to get an update on where the rover has been in the last (almost) year.

Curiosity Rover's Location for Sol 345

This map shows the route driven by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity through the 345 Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (July 26, 2013).

Numbering of the dots along the line indicate the sol number of each drive. North is up. The scale bar is 200 meters (656 feet). From Sol 344 to Sol 345, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 202.95 feet (61.86 meters). 

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona 

Just a quote

Nothing much to say about this, it speaks for itself.

To fill every unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run


Rudyard Kipling

God, why?

This issue of New Scientist is called the God Issue. I read it because I have issues with the idea of a God, since I believe human kind uses the existence of a God as an excuse for its failings, rather than taking responsibility for the things that we do. Let me say now I am passionately against religion and the idea of a God, but am open minded enough to concede that if the evidence exists for any religious argument I would be prepared to listen. Having said that I do agree that some of the ideas that form the cornerstone of many religions i.e human kindness, love, equality, friendship, appreciation of our world, are all things I do endorse as they help us function together. These things do not need magic (religion) to be important and do not need indoctrination (brain washing) and control to be relevant. I find most religions are not open to discussion or argument. That’s my point of view, now to some of the articles.

In the end I neither want nor need a God. I don't need an after life, what I need is to live the one life I have as fully as possible. Or as Rudyard Kipling put it  "To fill every unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run"

I believe Carl Sagan said  You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe.

Finally if you are interested in this type of debate, here are a few youtube offerings from    Stephen Fry

Just a pigment of your imagination

Here's a quick one for all you lovers of the colour magenta (including pinks and purples). In reality it, the colour does not exist. Unlike all other colours of the visible light spectrum, or electromagnetic radiation there is no wavelength of light that corresponds with magenta - hence the reason it's not in a rainbow. It appears that this colour is made up in the software that runs the organ we call our brain. The reason it does this is because magenta falls between red light and blue light and is really the absence of green - our brain does this to cope.

Look at this minute physics lecture on youtube it explains it really well

While on this sort of subject I have really been getting into the minute physics lectures along with many from the Royal Institution and listening to the infinite monkey cage hosted by the it's amazing Brian Cox.

Finally here's a thought about the Voyager space probes that have now left our solar system and the suns influence. As they travel on their interstellar journey think about the gold plaques on their side - these are there as an introduction to mankind, but maybe more importantly to give hope to humanity. The whole venture was the work of Carl Sagan. If you think how insignificant these space craft are, that they are unlikely to ever be found by any species - since they are so tiny in the Universe - and yet they will outlast humanity and will one day be the only evidence we ever existed.