How to Colonize an Asteroid
How to Colonize an Asteroid
The Voyager probes were some of the most successful spacecraft ever launched from earth. Two decades after they were launched, they are still functioning and sending data back to earth about the interstellar medium beyond the planet earth, and both the amount and quality of data returned far exceeded their original expectations. These were tax dollars well spent by the American public!
The Voyager project was approved for funding in 1972. Voyager 2 was launched first in August of 1977, and Voyager 1 followed in September of the same year. Both craft completed their planned photographic and scientific flyby's of Jupiter and Saturn, and Voyager went on to be reprogrammed in flight to make the same kind of flybys of Uranus and Neptune.
Voyager's computers were very simple machines, not much more sophisticated than a scientific calculator would be today, but their simple design has allowed them to be reprogrammed on several occasions, and they are still functioning - sending data back on a regular basis.
