By Jenny Marder
www.pbs.org
10-1-13
Just before 11 p.m. Monday night, NASAs Voyager 2 spacecraft sent this message via Twitter:
Of course, it wasnt Voyager sending the tweet, it was Voyagers handlers here on Earth.
But the slight whiff of snarkiness coming from the intrepid spacecraft, hurtling through deep space -- and depending very much on government funding to do so -- highlights the powerful impact this shutdown has on science and the nations scientific agencies.
At NASA, Mission Control in Houston remains active to support the crew aboard the International Space Station. But nearly all other space agency operations have ground to a halt. Most of the agencys 18,000 employees have been placed on furlough, spacecrafts and satellites not yet launched are grounded and while the Hubble Space Telescope will continue peering into far flung galaxies, no one will be there to collect the data....
... Even the Mars Curiosity spacecraft, the Atlantic reports, "will face its own little robot furlough: The explorer will be put in a protective mode for the duration of the shutdown, and will not collect any new data during that time."...
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See Also:
NASAs Voyager 1 Spacecraft Encounters Unknown Region Of Space
To The Moon? Bigelow Aerospace and NASA Look at Private Exploration
MARS: Curiosity Rover Makes Big Water Discovery - A Wow Moment VIDEO
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