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Voyager 1 and 2 had to happen in a narrow window of time to take advantage of favorable planetary alignments. If we launched something like this now, it would
by rabidrat 7y ago
Voyager 1 and 2 had to happen in a narrow window of time to take advantage of favorable planetary alignments. If we launched something like this now, it would take an order of magnitude more fuel and still not be able to go as fast. The next window for exploring interstellar space so efficiently isn't until 2150.
Of course there are other long-term missions we could be trying now; but it's not quite so straightforward (due to the mechanics of space-time) as we're led to believe.
For that matter, we could consider this whole anthropocene climate change thing we're doing to be one long-term experiment. You're welcome, children of the future, for all this wonderful data we're generating for you.
- Already__Taken 7y agoIt's what this sweet poster that hangs on my wall is for, first one in the set: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/visions-of-the-future/ https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/visions-of-the-future/
- noir_lord 7y agoI have one of those on my living room wall. The Kepler 16b one. The other wall has a cray supercomputer been serviced, a high res version of this https://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cray-1-nersc-disassembled.jpg https://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cray-... It’s amazing I have a partner, it really is.
- ianai 7y agoMusks starships sure make it seem plausible we’ll have better options available by then.
- phkahler 7y agoWhat we use the SpaceX starship - fully refueled in orbit - as a second stage? Put a 3rd stage in/on it to launch a probe. Fire the 3rd stage down in jupiters gravity well to get the most from it, or whatever trickery can be had. I suspect we could get to the heliopause a bit quicker even without such nice planetary alignment.