Voyager antenna operator: 'I was the first human to see images from Neptune'

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/21/voyager_2_40th_anniversary_meet_richard_stephenson_radio_operator/

by Angostura • 9 years ago

96 10 9 years ago

theregister.co.uk

canada_dry• 9 years ago

Canberra's amplifiers are already cryogenically cooled to 4.5° kelvin.

When my son and I toured Goldstone they showed us the equipment required to amplify the signal from Voyager... explaining how the signal is roughly 1 atta watt (1E-21)!!

The genius required to receive and process that is mind boggling.

MBCook• 9 years ago

PBS will have a documentary about the Voyager spacecrafts on Wed at 9 EST called The Farthest.

rwmj• 9 years ago

Oh good. It was jointly developed by the BBC so here's hoping they'll show it in the Storyville documentary series one day.

cyberferret• 9 years ago

Initially I assumed this was the same facility as made famous by the move "The Dish", but further reading seems to hint that that particular dish is 300km away - is that right?

femto• 9 years ago

There's a story there...

Yes, the antenna made famous by "The Dish", as the antenna that received the first footsteps from the Moon is 300km away at Parkes. However, the movie took some license with the truth so the antenna that actually received the first footsteps and rightfully owns the fame was the Honeysuckle Creek antenna at the then NASA tracking station: which was a few kilometres away from the current Canberra Deep Space Tracking Complex at Tidbinbilla (the subject of the article).

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Edit: The Honeysuckle Creek antenna was moved to Tidbinbilla, where it saw further service and now remains as an historic landmark.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeysuckle_Creek_Tracking_Sta...

bigiain• 9 years ago

Yep.

https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/CSIRO+-+Tidbinbilla+-+Can...

watersb• 9 years ago

So happy to see this.

The Very Large Array in southwest New Mexico was also upgraded for the Voyager at Neptune campaign. The backup diesel generators are still very much appreciated, although the Sun workstations were already yielding to Linux kit when I showed up in 1999.

Here's to the telescope operators, they deserve more fame.

pkaye• 9 years ago

What is Linux kit btw? Just some Linux workstations?

CamperBob2• 9 years ago

FYI, Dave Jones of EEVBlog interviewed Stephenson at the Tidbinbilla antenna site recently:

https://www.eevblog.com/2017/04/19/how-to-contact-the-voyage...

Definitely worth watching for anyone who's into this stuff.

nthcolumn• 9 years ago

Richard says: 'Not quite true, I was watching the RX strip chart during Triton occultation and the first to observe the thin atmosphere (Rate of sig atten)'

Voyager antenna operator: 'I was the first human to see images from Neptune'

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