Image: NASA
More In This Article
Ulysses, a solar-orbiting spacecraft launched in 1990, was finally retired a few weeks ago by NASA and the European Space Agency after nearly two decades of operation. In a huge elliptical loop, Ulysses swung by Earth, orbiting all the way out beyond the orbit of Jupiter, then back over the sun's poles to characterize our star's effects on its environs, only to begin another lap every six years or so.
Although the time and distance logged by Ulysses are significant, there are many older spacecraft that continue to function today. Some are just hanging on, puttering away in deep space awaiting human contact that may never come, whereas some are in daily use as communication links, monitors of Earth's activity or probes of astronomical processes.
Hailing from the 1960s to the early 1990s, here are 10 spacecraft and satellites—by no means an exhaustive list—that refuse to give up the ghost decades after deployment.
See what we're tweeting about
16 Comments
Add CommentJohn, Excellent Summary, thank you for your research. As an Amateur Radio Operator, every time I make a contact with another operator using AO-7 , the "Grand Old Lady", I'm aware of this "bird" that rises again, thank you. pete WB2OQQ
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat, no mention of the Iridium satellites? I'm disappointed. I know they were launched beginning in 1997 but they are an array of over 70 satellites that have outlived their designed life yet are still in use. For the complexity of such an array I'd say they deserve some mention.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm only peeved because I specified the coatings on the antennae for these satellites and aside from running into the occasional Russian satellite, they have performed remarkably well.
there's a guy in australia called dr karl who's worth following
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYay for Voyagers 1 and 2! These are the little spacecraft that could and did and are still doing. I am SO proud!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAgree with you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThank you!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLANDSAT5 (1984-20__). Designed for 3 years service; what a bargain.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust an idle thought:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf we know the positions of the voyagers, wouldn't they provide the longest parallax ranging baseline we've ever possessed?
Since our range data is largely hiearchal based on measured distances to known Cepheids, couldn't a few plates from the voyagers improve the accuracy of our whole scale of astronomical ranges?
I read D.A.W.'s comments and hear them in my head in the voice of the character "Comic Book Guy" from the Simpsons cartoon.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPedantic, arrogant, ...lonely.
His antennae twitch as he peruses the World Wide Web tasked with purging archaic word-usage and correcting grammatical minutiae.
Perhaps he could be repurposed for work on a reality television series where he would be locked in a cage of screaming macaques while bragging about his impressive academic pedigree.
E.D.U.
I read D.A.W.'s comments and hear them in my head in the voice of the character "Comic Book Guy" from the Simpsons cartoon.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPedantic, arrogant, ...lonely.
His antennae twitch as he peruses the World Wide Web tasked with purging archaic word-usage and correcting grammatical minutiae.
Perhaps he could be repurposed for work on a reality television series where he would be locked in a cage of screaming macaques while bragging about his impressive academic pedigree.
E.D.U.
hey Europamoon100, is Anal Retentive also a 'jargon phrase'?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, at least we know what will happen to Voyager in the future. Wierd that it would want a human to "mate" with.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNicely done ... good for a chuckle
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy is it always "egghead" types that ALWAYS respond in a condensending manner and then ALWAYS include their "accomplishments" so as to legitimize their comments? Souldns like a liberal, democrat elitest to me...!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy do you write a comment that adds nothing and shows the world your poor grammar and syntax?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAdd name calling on top and you are obviously a class(less) act.
We do not just "need the informations" - the way it is presented also matters. Please go back to school, as many contributors at SciAm should also.
The last photo, "Family Portrait" and the pale blue dot in the ray of sunlight: The ray, according to the location from the camera's position when the image was taken, has to be like a wave from the Sun. That means as there are three rays seen, there must be more rays all the way back to the ball of fire from which the rays originated. The rays would also extend out to the equatorial area of the heliosphere, and be striking that area exactly where the bright circle has been quite recently discovered.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow could they have the energy to excite the heliosphere's equatorial area's captured positive energied proton gas from the solar wind's 80% content?
That would be as the circles of sunlight are not circles, but are electromagnetic field lines (EM-FL), of which there are 16. Each of those EM-FL is an induced energy from the upper surface of each of the equatorial dynamos in the convection zone. Those 16 dynamos had been called - internal weather big fronts at the equator, while investigators call them equatorial big cells. - Sacha Brun, of France, as reported in arxiv.org, had been looking at small upper latitude tapered cells, which are merely a portion of one north and to the left EM-FL from its dynamo to the polar circle as it lines up for its exit to the corona as a loop to return to the opposed face of the dynamo.
So, those waves of sunlight are spiraled EM-FL whose energy comes from the 16 dynamos, and which receive an induced current through the tachocline and from each of the sixteen magnetic toroids in the radiative zone where at each fusion reaction takes place.
The reason for there not being much visibility to the EM-FL is because being an induced energy from a rotating disk of a grouping of electrons, in a dynamo, and as the 4 groupings in each dynamo rotate so that their each opposed pair of EM-FL contact the induction systems unattached conductor to the heliosphere on an on/off situation and are therefore an AC current, which does not exhibit as large a magnetic surround as does a DC conductor.
The electrics of that situation are listed in any EM instruction manual as the induction principle. That fact of the dynamo is listed under the properties of ionized plasma. The spiraled arms from each dynamo are listed as galaxy-like arms in a small novel: ISBN 978-0-9784457-1-3.
There is another energy from the toroids fusion reaction zones, which is the reason that the induced energy spiraled solar plane arms arc at the heliosphere's equatorial area, but that clarity takes more room than is available in this little comment section.
The Ancient One: Eddie R.