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Started By
Message
In less than one year, Voyager 1 will be one light-day from Earth.
Posted on 12/10/25 at 10:56 pm
Posted on 12/10/25 at 10:56 pm
Cruising along at 11 miles per second, it will be roughly 13 billion miles from Earth next November. Its trajectory has remained basically unchanged since whipping around Saturn in the 1980s.
Plutonium fuel source will be exhausted below the point of worthwhile function some time in the 2030s. After that, it more or less freezes up, unable to keep its antennas pointed toward Earth. It will keep going forever on the same line unless it smacks into something or gets pulled by something's gravity.
The Voyager program remains far and away one of not just NASA's but humanity's greatest ventures.
Popular Science
All of mankind's exploits - even warfare - are trivial compared to exploration. If people throughout all time had simply stayed put, fricking one another and sometimes fighting against their neighbors there would be very little history to record.
We've been content to sit on our asses in low Earth orbit for decades.
Plutonium fuel source will be exhausted below the point of worthwhile function some time in the 2030s. After that, it more or less freezes up, unable to keep its antennas pointed toward Earth. It will keep going forever on the same line unless it smacks into something or gets pulled by something's gravity.
The Voyager program remains far and away one of not just NASA's but humanity's greatest ventures.
Popular Science
All of mankind's exploits - even warfare - are trivial compared to exploration. If people throughout all time had simply stayed put, fricking one another and sometimes fighting against their neighbors there would be very little history to record.
We've been content to sit on our asses in low Earth orbit for decades.
20
Posted on 12/10/25 at 11:11 pm to reverendotis
Everything about that program is just mind-boggling to me!
Posted on 12/10/25 at 11:13 pm to reverendotis
I'm not trying to brag, but I once travelled a light day in 20 minutes.
Posted on 12/10/25 at 11:21 pm to L.A.
I bet you saved a ton in gas
Posted on 12/10/25 at 11:21 pm to Spankum
One of the best statistics isn't a superlative (farthest, fastest, oldest, etc) it is how slow it communicates, 160 bits per second.
An engineering monument to using your available bandwidth efficiently.
An engineering monument to using your available bandwidth efficiently.
Posted on 12/10/25 at 11:38 pm to reverendotis
"Send more Chuck Berry"
Posted on 12/11/25 at 12:13 am to reverendotis
All fun and games until it's swallowed up by that giant cloud and comes back to Earth and tries to kill us.
Posted on 12/11/25 at 12:27 am to CAD703X
V’GER
Posted on 12/11/25 at 12:28 am to reverendotis
The original Star Trek movie——- “V_y_ger”
Posted on 12/11/25 at 12:33 am to reverendotis
On the campus of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, is an amazing visual representation of the very tiny little bytes of data sent to Earth by Voyager 1. The control center that monitors all of NASA's satellites and rovers on Mars is in the room behind it.
Posted on 12/11/25 at 12:37 am to FightinTigersDammit
quote:
"Send more Chuck Berry"
And less Cardi B...
Posted on 12/11/25 at 12:44 am to reverendotis
quote:
We've been content to sit on our asses in low Earth orbit for decades.
Speak for yourself. DEI has made tremendous advancements in those decades. It don't need no voyager to do what it gone do.
Posted on 12/11/25 at 12:56 am to reverendotis
I imagine this is how this conversation went down.
"Hey, I got an idea! Let's strap some instruments to rockets and blast them as far away from Earth as possible!"
"Great idea boss!"
"Hell yeah! We're NASA, we can do whatever the hell we want!"
"I should inform you that to achieve this, we'll need gold, plutonium, beryllium, uranium, platinum..."
"Ah frick it, we don't need any of that shite on earth!"
"Hey, I got an idea! Let's strap some instruments to rockets and blast them as far away from Earth as possible!"
"Great idea boss!"
"Hell yeah! We're NASA, we can do whatever the hell we want!"
"I should inform you that to achieve this, we'll need gold, plutonium, beryllium, uranium, platinum..."
"Ah frick it, we don't need any of that shite on earth!"
Posted on 12/11/25 at 1:08 am to reverendotis
quote:
We've been content to sit on our asses in low Earth orbit for decades.
quote:I wonder why we've been content to sit on our asses
In less than one year, Voyager 1 will be one light-day from Earth
Posted on 12/11/25 at 1:11 am to HubbaBubba
I understand the dispersion of the return signal is so great and the magnitude so weak that it is harvested from radio telescopes all over Earth's surface then reassembled.
Consider the reverse, the Earth origin commands sent to it 13 billion miles away must be very, very, very well aimed to be received on the craft's relatively tiny receiver.
Consider the reverse, the Earth origin commands sent to it 13 billion miles away must be very, very, very well aimed to be received on the craft's relatively tiny receiver.
Posted on 12/11/25 at 6:44 am to reverendotis
I’m very ignorant but this seems counterintuitive.
I imagine radio waves like this.
Ever expanding not concentrated and focused.
quote:
Consider the reverse, the Earth origin commands sent to it 13 billion miles away must be very, very, very well aimed to be received on the craft's relatively tiny receiver.
I imagine radio waves like this.
Ever expanding not concentrated and focused.
Posted on 12/11/25 at 6:44 am to reverendotis
We need to do another one using modern tech. It'll be smaller, faster, more durable, and have better communication.
Posted on 12/11/25 at 6:49 am to reverendotis
quote:
We've been content to sit on our asses in low Earth orbit for decades.
Yeah, radiation’s a real bitch.
Posted on 12/11/25 at 7:30 am to L.A.
Well, I did the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.
Posted on 12/11/25 at 7:32 am to reverendotis
Why not post this until it’s actually one light day from Earth?
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