7 ms·

Curious as to how long does it take for the transmission to reach earth. Where can I learn that?

by niceairport 5y ago

dweekly 5y ago
21h https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/ https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/
- niceairport 5y ago
  I can't say I'm surprised, but it's still pretty crazy to think about that it took us 44 years to get an object to a place it takes light less than 24 hours to get to. It feels both pretty far and also not far at all at the same time.
  - kzrdude 5y ago
    I think new horizons is much faster, and will catch up. Still the same order of magnitude though
    - jonas21 5y ago
      Wikipedia disagrees: > Provided Voyager 1 does not collide with anything and is not retrieved, the New Horizons space probe will never pass it, despite being launched from Earth at a higher speed than either Voyager spacecraft. The Voyager spacecraft benefited from multiple planetary flybys to increase their heliocentric velocities, whereas New Horizons received only a single such boost, from its Jupiter flyby. As of 2018, New Horizons is traveling at about 14 km/s, 3 km/s slower than Voyager 1, and is still slowing down.
      - kzrdude 5y ago
        Oh, cool
    - wartijn_ 5y ago
      Not according to this stack exchange answer[0]. It quotes a page from John Hopkins University, although that source page doesn't seem to exist anymore. > Though New Horizons will also reach 100 AU, it will never pass Voyager 1, because Voyager was boosted by multiple gravity assists that make its speed faster than New Horizons will travel. Voyager 1 is escaping the solar system at 17 kilometers per second. When New Horizons reaches that same distance 32 years from now, propelled by a single planetary swingby, it will be moving about 13 kilometers per second [0] https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/3520/when-will-new-horizons-overtake-voyager-1-in-distance-from-the-sun#3521 https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/3520/when-will-new...
  - amatecha 5y ago
    Yeah, I had this reaction of like "yeah, only 21 hours? that's not too long"… Then it occurred to me, it's 21 hours at the _speed of light_, something we generally consider effectively "instant" here on Earth. Pretty fascinating stuff. I'm really happy to hear we're still getting transmissions back from Voyager 1 - from nearly 23 billion kilometers away, for that matter! Also really interesting is the Voyager FAQ, even from the first question (about whether the cameras could be turned back on). "Mission managers removed the software from both spacecraft that controls the camera. The computers on the ground that understand the software and analyze the images do not exist anymore." https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/frequently-asked-questions/ https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/frequently-asked-questions/
    - wongarsu 5y ago
      > something we generally consider effectively "instant" We are in one of the very few professions where the speed of light is considered annoyingly slow. Just three days ago there was a thread of people lamenting that the closest Hetzner datacenter is about 50 light-milliseconds away
      - pflanze 5y ago
        I don't know enough to say, but it wouldn't surprise me if our speed of thinking (and perhaps also time in general) is indirectly tied to the speed of light; meaning, if the speed of light were faster, we'd be thinking faster, and thus the round trip speed to Hetzner would appear just as annoying. I'll be happy to be corrected.
    - Chris2048 5y ago
      Given the distances involved, here's lightspeed travel from the sun: https://digg.com/video/light-speed-solar-system-travel https://digg.com/video/light-speed-solar-system-travel
- kevbin 5y ago
  Thanks for the that link. I just spent an hour in the Eyes on the Solar System web app and listening to Carl Sagan wax poetic about our Voyagers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H92iCnecYGQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H92iCnecYGQ "…and far from home, untouched by these remote events, the Voyagers, bearing the memories of a world that is no more, will fly on."—C. Sagan
celias 5y ago
The one-way light times are at the bottom of https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov roughly 17.5 hours for Voyager2 and 21 hours for Voyager 1
- holoduke 5y ago
  Just About 1200 times longer and it approached the same distance as our nearest star at 4 ly
  - wongarsu 5y ago
    If we started pursuing nuclear pulse propulsion we could have our first probe arrive in the next star system in a hundred years or so, and eventually get the travel time closer to 40 years.
    - techrat 5y ago
      If? Theoretical is still theoretical. We have no functioning propulsion that can exceed what the probes are currently travelling at.
      - wongarsu 5y ago
        At least for something like Project Orion, all the individual components are either verified in prototypes or proven technology. We have existing stockpiles of nuclear bombs. Propelling a craft by exploding something behind it is demonstrated in smaller prototypes with TNT. We know how to do radiation shielding, we know how to do shock absorbers. Or course combining technologies in a new way comes with lots of engineering challenges, but it's a smaller leap in technology than e.g. the first moon landing.

Curious as to how long does it take for the transmission to reach earth. Where can I learn that?

dweekly 5y ago

21h https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/ https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/

niceairport 5y ago
I can't say I'm surprised, but it's still pretty crazy to think about that it took us 44 years to get an object to a place it takes light less than 24 hours to get to. It feels both pretty far and also not far at all at the same time.
- kzrdude 5y ago
  I think new horizons is much faster, and will catch up. Still the same order of magnitude though
  - jonas21 5y ago
    Wikipedia disagrees: > Provided Voyager 1 does not collide with anything and is not retrieved, the New Horizons space probe will never pass it, despite being launched from Earth at a higher speed than either Voyager spacecraft. The Voyager spacecraft benefited from multiple planetary flybys to increase their heliocentric velocities, whereas New Horizons received only a single such boost, from its Jupiter flyby. As of 2018, New Horizons is traveling at about 14 km/s, 3 km/s slower than Voyager 1, and is still slowing down.
    - kzrdude 5y ago
      Oh, cool
  - wartijn_ 5y ago
    Not according to this stack exchange answer[0]. It quotes a page from John Hopkins University, although that source page doesn't seem to exist anymore. > Though New Horizons will also reach 100 AU, it will never pass Voyager 1, because Voyager was boosted by multiple gravity assists that make its speed faster than New Horizons will travel. Voyager 1 is escaping the solar system at 17 kilometers per second. When New Horizons reaches that same distance 32 years from now, propelled by a single planetary swingby, it will be moving about 13 kilometers per second [0] https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/3520/when-will-new-horizons-overtake-voyager-1-in-distance-from-the-sun#3521 https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/3520/when-will-new...
- amatecha 5y ago
  Yeah, I had this reaction of like "yeah, only 21 hours? that's not too long"… Then it occurred to me, it's 21 hours at the _speed of light_, something we generally consider effectively "instant" here on Earth. Pretty fascinating stuff. I'm really happy to hear we're still getting transmissions back from Voyager 1 - from nearly 23 billion kilometers away, for that matter! Also really interesting is the Voyager FAQ, even from the first question (about whether the cameras could be turned back on). "Mission managers removed the software from both spacecraft that controls the camera. The computers on the ground that understand the software and analyze the images do not exist anymore." https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/frequently-asked-questions/ https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/frequently-asked-questions/
  - wongarsu 5y ago
    > something we generally consider effectively "instant" We are in one of the very few professions where the speed of light is considered annoyingly slow. Just three days ago there was a thread of people lamenting that the closest Hetzner datacenter is about 50 light-milliseconds away
    - pflanze 5y ago
      I don't know enough to say, but it wouldn't surprise me if our speed of thinking (and perhaps also time in general) is indirectly tied to the speed of light; meaning, if the speed of light were faster, we'd be thinking faster, and thus the round trip speed to Hetzner would appear just as annoying. I'll be happy to be corrected.
  - Chris2048 5y ago
    Given the distances involved, here's lightspeed travel from the sun: https://digg.com/video/light-speed-solar-system-travel https://digg.com/video/light-speed-solar-system-travel
kevbin 5y ago
Thanks for the that link. I just spent an hour in the Eyes on the Solar System web app and listening to Carl Sagan wax poetic about our Voyagers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H92iCnecYGQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H92iCnecYGQ "…and far from home, untouched by these remote events, the Voyagers, bearing the memories of a world that is no more, will fly on."—C. Sagan

celias 5y ago

The one-way light times are at the bottom of https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov roughly 17.5 hours for Voyager2 and 21 hours for Voyager 1

holoduke 5y ago
Just About 1200 times longer and it approached the same distance as our nearest star at 4 ly
- wongarsu 5y ago
  If we started pursuing nuclear pulse propulsion we could have our first probe arrive in the next star system in a hundred years or so, and eventually get the travel time closer to 40 years.
  - techrat 5y ago
    If? Theoretical is still theoretical. We have no functioning propulsion that can exceed what the probes are currently travelling at.
    - wongarsu 5y ago
      At least for something like Project Orion, all the individual components are either verified in prototypes or proven technology. We have existing stockpiles of nuclear bombs. Propelling a craft by exploding something behind it is demonstrated in smaller prototypes with TNT. We know how to do radiation shielding, we know how to do shock absorbers. Or course combining technologies in a new way comes with lots of engineering challenges, but it's a smaller leap in technology than e.g. the first moon landing.