VOYAGER 2 SWITCHES TO BACKUP THRUSTERS

NASA has had many successful missions in space, but the Voyager program has to come near the top of the pile. Two identical unmanned probes called Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977 to study Jupiter and Saturn. But both have continued their flights through space, still functioning after 34 years and regularly communicate back information to Earth.

In those years both probes have been traveling away from Earth. Voyager 2 is now over 9 billion miles away in the heliosheath and will eventually leave our solar system completely. But to do that, and continue operating, NASA has to carry out a switch to a backup set of thrusters that have not been used in flight before.

The switch is necessary in order to save power in the region of 12 watts. In saving that power, Voyager 2 will go from requiring 270 watts to 258 watts. It may not seem like much, but as the power reserves on the probe diminish every little helps, and that saving could mean an extra decade of operation.

The 12 watts of power is currently being used up by a heater keeping the fuel line to primary thrusters warm. Switching to the backup thrusters used for roll motion means that fuel line is no longer required. The one concern being that these thrusters have never been used before in flight, so will they function after all this time?

Reassurance comes from the fact that Voyager 1 made the same switch in 2004 without issue, and had fired its main thrusters more times (353,000) than Voyager 2 (318,000).

NASA issued the command to switch on November 4th, but won’t know if it has been successful until November 14 when it receives communication from the probe as to what happened. Hopefully it will go without a hitch and we’ll still be hearing from Voyager 2 in 2021. [Geek]

LAST SPACE SHUTTLE, ATLANTIS, TOUCHES DOWN SAFELY IN FLORIDA

The Atlantis has touched down successfully at runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center bringing and end to an era in space flight. Crewmembers Chris Ferguson, Doug Hurley, Sandy Magnus, and Rex Walheim are back on our planet and, traveling at speeds decidedly slower than escape velocity, can officially put a cap onto this historic series of space missions that we, at least, will never forget. In the words of NASA: "Job well done, America."

PRESIDENT OBAMA PLEDGES $70 MILLION FOR ROBOTICS RESEARCH

Yesterday President Obama announced the government would pledge $70 million to a pool of $500 million donated by universities, research institutions, and private industry to develop new robotics technologies. The President made the announcement at the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University.

The project, called the National Robotics Initative, is part of a wider effort by the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership to research breakthrough technologies. The group consists of multiple government agencies, universities and colleges, corporations, and private industry groups. While the government has pledged $70 million to the initiative, other agencies have filled the pot with up to $500 million to fund the research project.

The National Robotics Initiative will leverage resources at NASA, the National Science Foundation, and other government agencies to build robots that will be useful not just in military and defense applications, but civilian ones as well. For example, the National Science Foundation said they hope to use the initiative to build “co-robots” that can work alongside humans in day-to-day activities.

GOVERNMENT REPORT FINDS LIGHTSQUARED LTE INTERFERS WITH GPS

Following up on reports and concerns about LightSquared's possible interference, a government study has found that the outfit's proposed broadband network does indeed impede GPS signals. According to the National PNT Engineering Forum, the federal advisory group that conducted the study, LiqhtSquared's network disrupted GPS signals for all of the devices tested in the area. The report lists OnStar, Garmin, John Deere, emergency services, the FAA, and NASA among those affected by interference. Both LightSquared and the GPS industry are scheduled to present their own tests for the FCC's consideration next week. The news isn't exactly shocking, but it certainly doesn't bode well for the ambitious LTE network.

NASA DECLARES INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION COMPLETE

With the sucessful return of the Discovery spaceshuttle, NASA has declared the International Space Station (ISS) to be complete. Discovery delivered the final module for the ISS.

While there are still some additional components to be added, the new room dubbed the "Permanent Multipurpose Module" is NASA's final contribution to the actual assembly of the station and, according to the agency, it means that it has "essentially completed" all that it had planned. The two remaining shuttle missions will just be carrying supplies and spare parts, along with a little $1.5 billion experiment called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which will be used to search for fun stuff like antimatter galaxies and dark matter.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CELEBRATES TEN YEARS OF CONTINUOUS HABITATION

Ten years ago today the first crew boarded the International Space Station. Since then the Space Station has had humans occupying its space. This ten year anniversary also marks the half way point of the ISC's expected lifetime, however it is not ready to de-orbit anytime soon. Even though its role has been expanded and revamped along way, and it has suffered a few bumps and glitches, the ISC is expected to have it's life extended past the originally planned 20 years. [Engadget]