<story><title>NASA Power Hack Extends 45-Year Voyager 2 Mission Even Longer</title><url>https://gizmodo.com/nasa-power-hack-extends-voyager-2-mission-science-1850378890</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bruce511</author><text>Everything about Voyager is just mind-blowing. These are 45 year old electronic devices, using 70&amp;#x27;s tech, with zero maintenance, operating 22 light hours away.&lt;p&gt;At that range they can still send messages detectable on earth. 9 out of 10 instruments are still working. People just leaving school when they launched are already retired.&lt;p&gt;This is one time when the adage &amp;quot;they don&amp;#x27;t make them like they used to&amp;quot; is well applied.&lt;p&gt;Hat tip to all involved.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>shagie</author><text>Btw, you can see the occasional communication with Voyager at &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;eyes.nasa.gov&amp;#x2F;dsn&amp;#x2F;dsn.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;eyes.nasa.gov&amp;#x2F;dsn&amp;#x2F;dsn.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I write this, one of the dishes at Madrid just went to &amp;quot;Setup&amp;quot; for communication with VGR1.&lt;p&gt;(late edit - some of the stats from the &amp;#x27;more info&amp;#x27; at the bottom of the spacecraft panel)&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    DATA RATE       160.0 b&amp;#x2F;sec
    POWER RECEIVED  -160 dBm (1.0 x 10-22 kW)&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>NASA Power Hack Extends 45-Year Voyager 2 Mission Even Longer</title><url>https://gizmodo.com/nasa-power-hack-extends-voyager-2-mission-science-1850378890</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bruce511</author><text>Everything about Voyager is just mind-blowing. These are 45 year old electronic devices, using 70&amp;#x27;s tech, with zero maintenance, operating 22 light hours away.&lt;p&gt;At that range they can still send messages detectable on earth. 9 out of 10 instruments are still working. People just leaving school when they launched are already retired.&lt;p&gt;This is one time when the adage &amp;quot;they don&amp;#x27;t make them like they used to&amp;quot; is well applied.&lt;p&gt;Hat tip to all involved.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>schmichael</author><text>Agreed, but I believe Voyager is 18.5 light hours away, not 22. The article says it is 20 billion km away which is 18.5 light hours.&lt;p&gt;However the article also states signals take 22 hours to reach the spacecraft. Do radio waves travel slower than the speed of light even in the vacuum of space? I assume the waves do not spend the extra 3.5 hours in Earth&amp;#x27;s atmosphere!</text></comment>