SciByte

hopefully — the power to operate for at least another decade

The move was a little risky

backup roll thrusters were previously unused

been idle and out in the harsh environment of space for 32 years

Voyager 2 will save about 11.8 watts of electric power by turning off the heater that kept the hydrazine fuel to the primary thrusters warm

Voyager 1 and 2 are each equipped with six sets, or pairs, of thrusters to control the pitch, yaw and roll motions of the spacecraft. With this latest command, both spacecraft are now using all three sets of their backup thrusters

The primary roll thrusters now turned off fired more than 318,000 times. Voyager 1 changed to the backup for this same component after 353,000 pulses in 2004

energy generated by Voyager 2′s Plutonium 238 nuclear power source continues to decline, and is now down to about 270 watts from the 470 watts being produced when the spacecraft launched in 1977

at the rate of decay, the Voyager spacecraft won’t have sufficient electric power to its instruments sometime by the mid-2020′s.

Using solar power for a spacecraft traveling beyond Jupiter is impractical

This latest tune-up will hopefully get Voyager 2 a little farther while she’s still able to communicate with Earth

the probe “Corrects her orbit” every now and then.

Does this mean that the probe knows where she is? Probably not.

If Grunt’s safe mode includes a program that fires thrusters every so often to keep the craft from entering the atmosphere in the event of a malfunction just after reaching low Earth orbit

continues to occur, we can expect that the predicted date of atmospheric entry will be moved back again, just as it was moved from late December/early November to mid-January after the first orbital correction episode

it could buy more time for controllers to establish communication –although Roscosmos has stated that December is the limit for correcting the problem

Curiosity’s purpose is to search for evidence of habitats that could ever have supported microbial life on Mars

determine whether the ingredients of life exist on Mars today in the form of organic molecules

The nuclear power source will significantly enhance the driving range, scientific capability and working lifetime of the six wheeled rover compared to other solar powered landed surface explorers

The science payload weighs ten times more than any prior Mars rover mission.

In active mode, it is sensitive enough to detect water content as low as one-tenth of one percent in the ground beneath the rover.

With pulses lasting about one microsecond and repeated as frequently as 10 times per second

The generator will be able to emit a total of about 10 million pulses during the mission, with about 10 million neutrons at each pulse.

DAN can tell us how the shallow subsurface may differ from what the rover sees at the surface. None of our other instruments have the ability to do this

will provide the ability to detect hydrated minerals or water ice in the shallow subsurface

will also provide a ground-truth calibration for the measurements that the gamma-ray and neutron detectors on Odyssey have made and continue to make

enhancing the value of that global data set

Mass 900 kg (2,000 lb)[

Power Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG)

the general public had an opportunity to rank nine finalist names through a public poll on the NASA website

Curiosity was selected, which was submitted by a sixth-grader, Clara Ma, from Kansas in an essay contest

10 ft (3.0 m) in length

radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), as used by the successful Mars landers Viking 1 and Viking 2 in 1976

Radioisotope power systems are generators that produce electricity from the natural decay of plutonium-238, which is a non-fissile isotope of plutonium used in power systems for NASA spacecraft. Heat given off by the natural decay of this isotope is converted into electricity, providing constant power during all seasons and through the day and night, and waste heat can be used via pipes to warm systems, freeing electrical power for the operation of the vehicle and instruments

designed to produce 125 watts of electrical power from about 2000 watts of thermal power at the start of the mission

lifetime of 14 years, electrical power output is down to 100 watts

"Rover Compute Element" (RCE), contain radiation hardened memory to tolerate the extreme radiation environment from space and to safeguard against power-off cycles

256 kB of EEPROM, 256 MB of DRAM, and 2 GB of flash memory

found at Djadochta Formation, Tugrikinshire, Mongolia,

researchers conclude that the 15 dinosaurs all show juvenile characteristics

At least 10 of the 15 fossil sets are complete

nest further implies that parental care was provided.

Mongolia was, at the time, a place with a variety of theropod dinosaurs, some of whom likely ate babies such as these

The most obvious of these, found in the same deposits, is the (in)famous Velociraptor

The bright object moving into the field of view in the lower right is Mercury

shown compared to a paramecium and amoeba above

When the scientist compared the neurons of adult and pupae fairy wasps, he discovered that more than 95% of adult neurons lack a nucleus

suggest that while a complete set of neurons is needed to grow, far less are required to live

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission features Curiosity, the largest and most advanced rover ever sent to the Red Planet

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission, scheduled to launch in late 2013, will orbit Mars and is devoted to understanding the Red Planet's upper atmosphere

help determine what caused the Martian atmosphere—and water— to be lost to space, making the climate increasingly inhospitable for life.

If any such asteroid candidate exists

return capsule back to Earth might be utilized to deliver a sample of the asteroid