From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Sun Mar 13 2005 - 03:49:49 PST
http://www.flatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050313/NEWS02/503130333/1007 March 13, 2005
When deep space probes call, maybe no one will be listening
Voyager program faces budget cuts
BY CHRIS KRIDLER
CAPE CANAVERAL - If NASA carries out a proposal to kill funding for several older science missions, Voyager 1 could miss its chance to explore the outer envelope of our solar system, where no spacecraft from Earth has gone.
The science journal Nature reported this week that NASA officials told managers of seven missions they could lose funding Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year.
Among those are the twin Voyager probes. Voyager 1 is almost 8.7 billion miles from the sun, farther than any spacecraft has traveled from Earth.
NASA says a senior review will take place before any final ruling.
"There have been no formal decisions made here at the agency to shut down or terminate any of those missions, despite what the budget figures may imply," spokeswoman Gretchen Cook-Anderson said Friday.
In late 2003, scientists reported that Voyager 1 appeared to be crossing the fluctuating boundary between the inner solar system and the zone that borders interstellar space. Solar winds -- known as the termination shock -- push against this region, which marks the edge of the bubble called the heliosphere.
Beyond it is the heliosheath, the mysterious hot envelope that abuts interstellar space. Signs are getting stronger that Voyager is crossing the termination shock, project scientist Edward Stone said Friday, and the ship could reach the heliosheath in the next 10 years.
Voyager 2, on a different path, will take longer to reach the heliosheath.
The Voyagers are the only missions with the chance to travel this unknown zone.
"There are currently no plans for any others, so this is an opportunity we have to explore that region of space," said Stone, of the California Institute of Technology.
The ships launched from Cape Canaveral in 1977. Their power supply could last until 2020, but if funding is axed, scientists won't be able to monitor them.
The Voyager program gets about $4 million a year from NASA. In contrast, space shuttles get $4.5 billion.
Contact Kridler at 242-3633 or ckridler_at_flatoday.net<mailto:ckridler_at_flatoday.net>
NASA may cut funding for these missions when the fiscal year starts in October:
Voyager 1 and 2: Explored outer planets; now pushing to edge of solar system
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: Sun Mar 13 2005 - 04:01:33 PST
FLORIDA TODAY
Ulysses: Studies sun and its environment
Polar: Studies solar cycle
FAST: Fast Auroral SnapshoT studies auroras
Geotail: Studies magnetotail, on night side of Earth's magnetosphere
TRACE: Transition Region and Coronal Explorer takes high-resolution images of sun
Wind: Studies magnetosphere and solar wind