

Computers in Spaceflight: The NASA Experience - js2
http://history.nasa.gov/computers/Ch6-2.html

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js2
I was looking specifically for information about the Voyager 2 computer
systems, but there's a lot more in this document:

<http://history.nasa.gov/computers/contents.html>

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sliverstorm
As an aside, what has stopped us from sending more probes? Do we simply have
all the data we need? It seems like cost should not be an issue, as something
like the Voyager re-made with modern technology would be cheap to develop and
even cheaper to manufacture.

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mturmon
It's a good question that I had to think about a little.

First, I think you may not know how many missions there currently are. There
has been a huge increase over the past years. Here's a list:

<http://www.nasa.gov/missions/current/index.html>

Second, the outer planets missions are not numerous. They tend to be big and
all-encompassing, with multiple science objectives and specialized imagers.
(Not a quick flyby like Voyager.) Because they need to show science impact,
they can't just pack a simple imager and some particle detectors.

Right now, the big outer planets mission is Cassini, which has been orbiting
Saturn and visiting its moons, which are a varied bunch. Before that, there
was Galileo, which visited Jupiter.

For context, I believe it's accurate to say that the era of large "flagship"
missions was wound down years ago, and replaced by what, at the time, was
called "faster, better, cheaper". (Engineers replied, "sure, pick any two".)
Despite grumbling, this doctrine pretty much won out for planetary missions.

For inner planets, of course, most attention has gone to Mars, using the
"follow the water" strategy.

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robin_reala
Regarding outer plutoid (hah) flybys the New Horizons mission is on its way
out to Pluto and beyond at the moment.

<http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/>

