The US space agency’s (Nasa) venerable Voyager mission is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Its two probes were launched within weeks of each other in 1977 to make a detailed study of the outer planets.

The probes were then sent on trajectories that will eventually take them out of the Solar System and into interstellar space.

Three decades on, they continue to return data from distances more than three times farther away than Pluto.

Currently, Voyager 1 is farthest away. Launched on 5 September 1977, it is about 15.5 billion km (9.7 billion miles) from the Sun.

To communicate with distant spacecraft, NASA’s Deep Space Network uses antenna with a diameter of up to 70 meters (230 feet). That is almost as big as a football field.

One of NASA’s most venerable spacecrafts celebrated three decades of flight Wednesday – thanks in large part to the efforts of the Savannah River Site.

Launched September 5, 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Fl., the Voyager 1 spacecraft is currently an estimated 9.7 billion miles from the sun, further than any other human-made object.

Arguably the only thing even more impressive than the vast distance traveled by the craft is the fact that it continues to relay information collected by its onboard instruments back to NASA.

“The Voyager mission is a legend in the annals of space exploration,” said Alan Stern, an associate administrator at NASA. “It opened our eyes to the scientific richness of the outer solar system, and it has pioneered the deepest exploration of the sun’s domain ever conducted.”

The craft, along with sister ship Voyager 2, are responsible for some of the most detailed information and images of the outer giant planets in our solar system – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – ever gathered.

The instruments responsible for collecting that data owe their longevity to an onboard nuclear battery – called a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, or RTG – that is fueled by plutonium 238, a material that was produced and purified at SRS.

“All of that information, all of those pictures you see in a textbook, all that detail, those are all things that we wouldn’t know” if it were not for the nuclear battery, said Thomas Robinson, who worked on the plutonium production for the Cassini-Huygens mission, one of more than 20 NASA crafts that have employed the RTGs onboard since 1961.

The RTG itself is relatively rather basic, say SRS experts. The battery relies on the plutonium’s decay to produce heat, which in turn is then converted into electricity to power the onboard instruments.

“Over the years the principal has remained the same, but the efficiency has improved,” said Charles Goergen, who also worked on the Cassini project at SRS.

NASA was forced to turn to nuclear science in order to ensure that their crafts would have a suitable amount of energy to operate in the depths of outer space. Solar panels were not an option because they fail to capture enough of the sun’s rays to be effective once the crafts start to leave Earth behind.

“That’s why we use (the plutonium),” said Rick Burns. “It provides a steady, continuous source of power that is reliable over a long period of time.”

The craft’s five instruments run on only around 300 watts, the amount of power needed to light up a bright light bulb, and NASA is capable of turning off one or more of the instruments if the RTG’s output were to wane.

Adding to the already large scale of the project is the golden record that each of the two Voyagers carry. The records act as a time capsule complete with greetings, images and sounds from Earth – as well as directions on how to find the planet if it is ever recovered by something or someone.

While many at SRS are familiar with the concept of their work being used on a grand stage, they say working with NASA was especially satisfying.

“There is a great deal of pride involved” for those at SRS that worked on the space projects, said Goergen. “We know that we played a role in the whole thing, it really means something.”

Teams have scoured an area of 10,000 sq miles (25,900 sq km) of remote terrain, as yet unsuccessfully.

One object had given rescuers hope, but it was found not to be Fossett’s plane.

It was spotted south-east of the ranch from which Mr Fossett took off, but closer inspection revealed that it was not connected to him.

“Once again, you had your hopes raised and dashed, ” said Nevada Civil Air Patrol Major Cynthia Ryan.

After six days of intensive searches, rescuers have not found any sign of Mr Fossett’s plane, but they have spotted six planes which crashed in the desert in earlier years.

Still hopeful

The discovery of the six previously unknown wrecks underscores the difficulties of finding the single-engine plane in which Mr Fossett was flying.

“That’s always a possibility – that he may never be found,” Lyon County Undersheriff Joe Sanford told Associated Press.

“But I’d like to believe that with our state-of-the-art technology, the chances of finding him are much better.”

News of the old wrecks has prompted inquiries from people wondering if the pilots or passengers may be long-lost family members.

Searchers are holding out hope of finding Mr Fossett, Mr Sanford said.

“With the resources and assets we have, I feel comfortable we’ll find the plane in the near-term,”, he said.

“Whether it’ll be by us, a hunter or a skier, we’ll find it. I like to believe the glass is half full.”

Fossett, who over the years risked his life circling the globe in a hot-air balloon and an experimental lightweight aircraft, disappeared after taking off from a private airstrip Monday in an ordinary single-engine plane to scout sites for an attempt at a land-speed record in a rocket-propelled car.

Massive operation
Crews from three states searched by air and land over an area the size of Connecticut, marked by rugged mountains jutting to 10,000 feet.

Fossett’s plane, a Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon, had a locator device that sends a satellite signal after a rough landing, but no such signal had been received.

Fossett always wears a Breitling Emergency wristwatch that allows pilots to turn a knob and immediately signal their location, said Granger Whitelaw, a fellow pilot and a co-founder of the Rocket Racing League. But no such signal was activated.

Authorities said at one point they thought they had spotted Fossett’s plane and sent in a helicopter crew to confirm.

“We thought we had it nailed,” Nevada Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia Ryan told reporters late Wednesday. “Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of many dozen unmapped wreck sites from previous years.”

‘Washoe Zephyr’
Wind gusts in the area can whip up without warning from any direction, with sudden downdrafts that can drag a plane clear to the ground. Passengers flying even on commercial airliners between Las Vegas and Reno know to keep their seat belts fastened for a ride that is never smooth.

Mark Twain wrote about the “Washoe Zephyr” — named for the Nevada county — in the book “Roughing It.”

“But, seriously, a Washoe wind is by no means a trifling matter. It blows flimsy houses down, lifts shingle roofs occasionally, rolls up tin ones like sheet music, now and then blows a stagecoach over and spills the passengers,” he wrote.

In 1999, three well-known glider pilots were killed in two separate accidents after taking off from the Minden airport.

Donald D. Engen, director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, died along with the former president of a gliding organization after their sailplane broke apart and fell 4,000 feet. And nationally ranked glider pilot Clem Bowman died when his glider plummeted 100 feet shortly after takeoff.

Fossett, a Stanford University graduate with a master’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis, went to Chicago to work in the securities business and ultimately founded his own firm, Marathon Securities.

He went missing on Tuesday after taking off in a single-engine plane the day before to scout locations for a land-speed record .

Last year, Mr Fossett smashed the record for flying further than anyone in history.

In 2002, Fossett became the first person to fly around the world alone in a balloon. In two weeks, his balloon flew 19,428.6 miles around the Southern Hemisphere. The record came after five previous attempts — some of them spectacular and frightening failures.

It is among dozens of firsts claimed by Fossett in his life as an adventurer, which he embarked on after a successful career in securities. He set marks for speed or distance in balloons, airplanes, gliders, sailboats — even cross-country skis and an airship, according to his Web site.

Fossett has climbed some of the world’s best-known peaks, including the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. He also swam the English Channel in 1985, placed 47th in the Iditarod dog sled race in 1992, participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race in 1996 and broke the round-the-world sailing record by six days in 2004.

In 1995, Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon, landing in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Fossett was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in July. He told a crowd gathered at the Dayton Convention Center in Ohio that he would continue flying.

“I’m hoping you didn’t give me this award because you think my career is complete, because I’m not done,” Fossett said.

Fossett said he planned to go to Argentina in November in an effort to break a glider record.

In March 2005, he became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling. He and a co-pilot also claim to have set a world glider altitude record of 50,671 feet during a flight in August 2006 over the the Andes Mountains.

He flew 26,389.3 miles in the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer and the record-breaking journey lasted 76 hours and 45 minutes, beating the former record of 25,361 miles set by the Breitling Orbiter balloon in 1999.

Mr Fossett’s record journey in the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer was sponsored by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, who is also known for his daredevil record attempts and followed Mr Fossett in a support plane.

The 63-year-old, famed for his numerous solo flights around the globe by airplane and balloon, is understood to be unaccounted for since Monday.

Mr Fossett took off in a single engine Bellanca at 8.45am yesterday at a private airstrip at the Hilton Ranch in western Nevada but did not return as scheduled.

A friend later reported him missing, said Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Maryland.

So get the ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL Google Pack with Google Earth right now !!!

Be careful not to fly too high though !!!

You just might end up lost in Google Space.

To start Open Google Earth 4.4 and press Ctrl+Alt+A (if you’re running OS X it’s Command+Option+A; some people have reported that Ctrl+A or Ctrl+Windows+A work when the standard Ctrl+Alt+A does not)

If you are struggling to get into flight simulator mode then follow the instructions below to manually enable flight simulator. After enabling, go Tools -> Enter Flight Simulator.

Windows:

Download FlightSim.reg, double click on it and restart Google Earth.

Linux:

echo 1 > .googleearth/Registry/google/googleearthplus/User/flightsim/isena

Here’s what Marco says :

Some time last week, Google expanded Google Earth with Google Sky. As fascinating as Google Sky is, that’s not the focus of this post. Along with the latest update comes a hidden feature of which I cannot seem to find any other information about. It’s not in the release notes and a search on Google produces no results. Seems Google have done one of their unpublicised updates they’re becoming well-known for.

What I’m talking about is a flight simulator embedded within GE. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? If the thought amazes you as much as it did me, then might have run off and tried it for yourself. But there’s a problem. Remember what I said above – it’s a hidden feature!

First of all you’ll have to install the latest version of GE. Once you’ve started it all up, explored Google Sky a bit, then all you have to do is hit Ctrl+Alt+A (if you’re running OS X it’s Command+Option+A; some people have reported that Ctrl+A or Ctrl+Windows+A work when the standard Ctrl+Alt+A does not). If all goes as planned the following dialog should pop up:

As you can see from the screenshot there are only two aircraft to choose from at this stage. The F16 I find is much more enjoyable for a quick stint as it goes much faster than the SR22. Try both though as they’re quite different flights. Then you get to pick a start position. The default option of Kathmandu runway gives you in the following scene:

Before going wild pressing random keys like I did, have a look at the controls. Sidetracking a bit, you’ll notice that the top of that page gives proof that Google purposefully hid this feature:

Once you have entered flight simulator mode for the first time, you can re-enter the mode by choosing Tools > Enter Flight Simulator.

Moving on though, you can get a quick start by holding Page Up for a few seconds to increase to maximum thrust (thrust meter is the left bar of the lower-left meters). Once you’ve accelerated to a sufficient velocity use the arrow keys to take-off. The keys are in reverse as one would expect with any flight simulator, so use the down arrow to take-off. When you’ve gained enough altitude then stabalise the aircraft to a straight flight path.

It can be rather tricky to get the hang of as the controls are quite sensitive. However, the same can be said of any reasonable flight simulator as that’s the nature of flying. After a little fiddling around and once you’re stable you should see a nice view of the Himalayas out on the horizon:

I guess this next screenshot should have come before the last, since it’s what most people will see first. However, this is not as bad as it may appear. Although I admittedly was very poor when I started out, I learned with a little practice. This shot is actually of a controlled upside-down flight. If I was really out of control I wouldn’t have been able to capture such a nice shot!

To round up on the screenshots, here are a couple quick ones from flying over Frankfurt and New York. They’re not all that fascinating to look at, especially when compared to the real experience.

Overall, I think they’ve done a good job considering (assuming?) this is their first release. There are several things missing though. A major thing is that you don’t get a view of the aircraft at all. It would be nice if they could add several views, including a view from within the cockpit with full controls, etc. The controls are covered well. It works with joysticks, however I couldn’t find one to test with. The mouse control is very effective although switching between mouse and keyboard I found a little poor as it would jerk the aircraft.

Unfortunately with poor bandwidth in South Africa most of the scenes didn’t get a chance to fully load before going out of view. I’m sure this won’t be an issue with a decent line. Even without it loading in full it was still very usable, which is a big plus!

The airports are covered fairly well, with almost all major airports included in the list. Perhaps a search option could be added to search for airports, since all the data should already be available as it’s displayed in the main Google Earth view. However, the locations might not have sufficient precision. I think the aircraft selection needs to be improved drastically before this is fully launched.

All-in-all I think it’s a great feature Google has added to one of their top products. I still remember the days when Microsoft Flight Simulator was considered so cool and that you had to pay for! With a bit more work this has lots of potential to greatly surpass other flight simulators.

UPDATE: If you are struggling to get into flight simulator mode then follow the instructions below to manually enable flight simulator. After enabling, go Tools -> Enter Flight Simulator.

Windows:

Download FlightSim.reg, double click on it and restart Google Earth.

Linux:

echo 1 > .googleearth/Registry/google/googleearthplus/User/flightsim/isena