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That's the problem, they won't have enough energy to transmit anymore. The Voyager probes are powered entirely from their RTGs, they have no solar panels nor b
by maples37 2y ago
That's the problem, they won't have enough energy to transmit anymore.
The Voyager probes are powered entirely from their RTGs, they have no solar panels nor batteries[1]. So if the power output from the RTGs drops below the level needed to power the transmitter, Voyager can't talk to us anymore. There's no batteries that can be recharged and no solar panels it ever drew power from.
The exciting part from this discovery is the potential to keep talking to Voyager longer than we thought. If the S-band transmitter uses less power and we're still able to detect that signal, we may be able to communicate with the probes with lower RTG outputs than we initially thought. Though at that point, if the radio is the only thing still running and there's no instruments operating, the usefulness is probably pretty low at that point.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1#Power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1#Power, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2#Power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2#Power
- whamlastxmas 2y agoI wonder how long we could make an RTG last today
- 93po 2y agowiki has the answer, ballpark is around twice as long, and they're using this new design for an upcoming probe
- Sanzig 2y agoFundamentally there isn't any change in the underlying physics. You're limited by the half life of the isotope, so you either choose a longer-lived isotope (which actually may be even harder post Cold War as much of the ideal isotopes were byproducts of nuclear weapons manufacturing) or launch a bigger RTG than you need so you have enough power later on in the mission.
- 93po 2y agoyep i think the newer ones use a different fuel that is longer lived, and advances in tech around it make it more viable than it was decades ago
- daedrdev 2y agoI think the more interesting thing is its suddenly become so much cheaper to put things in orbit, we could simply put a larger satellite with a larger nuclear battery out there.
- Nginx487 2y agoOn such a distance solar panels won't make any difference. Sun looks like just a very bright star from that far.
- tmshapland 2y agoRTGs are so cool. They're thermocouples in reverse!