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> Voyager 1 is currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth Voyager 1 is the farthest man-made object from Earth.
by 29athrowaway 3y ago
> Voyager 1 is currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth
Voyager 1 is the farthest man-made object from Earth.
- willcipriano 3y agoI wonder if we will ever pass Voyager 1. Might be the farthest for a long time.
- detourdog 3y agoI remember when the launching of voyager. I would rather be getting bad data than no data.
- SigmundA 3y agoI always like it in space simulation games when you can visit them: https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Voyager_1 https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Voyager_1
- floxy 3y agoHopefully in my lifetime we can do something like these lightsails: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQFqDKRAROI&t=883s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQFqDKRAROI&t=883s ...which do a swing by the sun to get up to 22 AU/year.
- johndunne 3y agoI asked myself this same question when New Horizon sent pictures of Pluto back. I was surprised to learn that NH will never overtake Voyager because of the number of gravity assists Voyager 1 achieved. The planners had to race to achieve the 4 gravity assists in the 70's, the next time the 4 giants line up in such a way isn't until 2145. Perhaps some form of ion engine, one day, will help us overtake Voyager. Or more sci-fi fusion/nuclear rockets. Who knows, but it's interesting to ponder. https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/voyager-1-solar-system/ https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/voyager-1-solar-syst...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deely3 3y ago> farthest man-made object that we know about and actively track
- lagrange77 3y agowow!
- zamadatix 3y agoAre there other candidates outside those criteria or is this a "it's impossible to really know anything" response?
- DrBazza 3y agoThe manhole cover from Operation Plumbob? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plumbbob https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plumbbob
- rubyron 3y agoTIL about a 2,000 lb "manhole cover" (big armored plate they welded on the end of a pipe to contain (HA!) the explosion) that got launched into the atmosphere in 1957 by a nuclear explosion test, leaving ground at 150,000 mph (220,000 fps). Spoiler: it probably vaporized.
- fallingknife 3y agoLaunch velocity was estimated at 66km/s. 11 of that would be burned climbing out of Earth's gravity well leaving us with a velocity of 55 km/s relative to Earth. It will take another 42 km/s to escape the solar system, so that would be a velocity of 13 km/s at escape. Voyager 1 is traveling at 17 km/s, so would either be ahead of it or will catch it eventually. But this doesn't account for the earth's orbit at 30 km/s. So depending on the launch orientation to orbit, the manhole cover could either still be in orbit around the sun, or have a velocity of up to 43 km/s at escape. So it's possible, if it didn't get vaporized, that is.
- floxy 3y ago
- bee_rider 3y agoTrue, there are almost certainly alien spacecraft farther from Earth than Voyager.
- echelon 3y agoI hope so!
- deadbabe 3y agoI doubt it more and more these days. So many improbable things need to line up perfectly for this to happen. There may be alien civilizations, but they might be on worlds without the adequate resources or the right type of gravity to reach escape velocity. And there simply hasn’t been enough time in the universe for many space faring civilizations to have arisen yet. We might be really early.
- squidbeak 3y agoSo long as it isn't impossible, the improbable becomes inevitable at scales as vast as the universe.
- deadbabe 3y agoNot really. Very large improbabilities require a lot more time than what the universe has been around for.
- nerdbert 3y agoFrom our limited sampling, it happens with some measurable frequency. Going from zero to one of something tends to be a lot less likely than going from one to two or more.
- deadbabe 3y agoYea but we don’t know how many failed attempts there were that got stuck at zero. We only know our one existence. Could be trillions of dead universes before ours.