时间:2025-04-26 13:14:14 来源:网络整理编辑:探索
We're going to need a bigger antenna. For the first time, NASA's Deep Space Network — which co
We're going to need a bigger antenna.
For the first time, NASA's Deep Space Network — which communicates with the agency's legendary Voyager 1 spacecraft — pointed all six of the large antenna dishes at its Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex at the interstellar craft. Combining antennas together, aka "arraying," allows NASA to create a bigger overall antenna and pick up ever-fainter signals from Voyager 1, a craft over 15 billion miles away — and counting. Already, engineers need a five-antenna array to gather unprecedented data from a Voyager instrument.
"As Voyager gets further away, six antennas will be needed," the space agency explained in a statement.
SEE ALSO:NASA's Voyager is in hostile territory. It's 'dodging bullets.'Voyager 1 and 2, launched in 1977, have left the sun's influence and are the only human-built craft to enter interstellar space. So the data they're returning is invaluable.
"The science data that the Voyagers are returning gets more valuable the farther away from the Sun they go, so we are definitely interested in keeping as many science instruments operating as long as possible," Linda Spilker, Voyager’s project scientist, said last year
"As Voyager gets further away, six antennas will be needed."
The instrument that requires six antennas, the Plasma Wave System (PWS) instrument, detects the interstellar gas the craft are passing through.
Tweet may have been deleted
NASA's Deep Space Network, or DSN, has three disparate locations spaced around Earth, allowing different missions to connect with the network (it currently supports over 40 space endeavors). They're located in Barstow, California, near Madrid, Spain, and near Canberra, Australia. "Madrid is the only deep space communication complex currently with six operational antennas (the other two complexes have four apiece)," the agency explained. "Each complex consists of one 70-meter (230-foot) antenna and several 34-meter (112-foot) antennas."
The Voyager craft, nearing a half-century of operation, may potentially return unprecedented science data through the mid-2030s, when they exhaust their finite nuclear fuel supply. Yet out in interstellar space, another threat looms, too: harmful radiation called galactic cosmic rays. These high speed particles, many of which are created by dramatic star explosions called supernovae, can trip Voyagers' memory, or permanently damage aging computers (which may have recently occurred). It's dangerous in the realm between the stars, billions of miles away.
"We are dodging bullets out there," Alan Cummings, a cosmic-ray physicist at Caltech — the research university that manages NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory — recently told Mashable.
TopicsNASA
More than half of women in advertising have faced sexual harassment, report says2025-04-26 12:32
If you want to stay cool this summer, don't be afraid to look corny2025-04-26 12:32
Tom Holland got the loudest screams at D23 so he must be Marvel's biggest star now2025-04-26 12:30
Are Amazon's prices too good to be true? The U.S. government wants to find out.2025-04-26 12:13
Florida hurricane forecast remains uncertain, but trends in state's favor2025-04-26 11:52
Martin Landau, 'Mission Impossible,' 'North by Northwest' actor, dead at 892025-04-26 11:23
Airbnb host fined for racist comment on cancellation2025-04-26 11:19
Jimmy Kimmel tweets update on 32025-04-26 11:11
This 'sh*tpost' bot makes terrible memes so you don't have to2025-04-26 11:04
Soundcloud is struggling. Chance the Rapper says it's here to stay.2025-04-26 10:55
Singapore gets world's first driverless taxis2025-04-26 12:42
An exit interview with Sean Spicer2025-04-26 12:30
G20 summit shows Trump took U.S. from first to worst on climate change in under a year2025-04-26 12:03
A security robot just drowned itself, so score one for humans2025-04-26 12:01
Twitter grants everyone access to quality filter for tweet notifications2025-04-26 11:59
Halle Berry chugs an entire freaking glass of whiskey at Comic2025-04-26 11:50
Trivial Pursuit saw the Trump presidency coming decades ago2025-04-26 11:48
Did Justin Trudeau just Google 'Canada music' to make his summer playlist?2025-04-26 11:38
New Zealand designer's photo series celebrates the elegance of aging2025-04-26 11:03
Maybe stop bashing millennials with your obnoxious job ad if you want people to apply2025-04-26 10:42