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I hope & wonder that if some spaceship find this space object a thousand or a million years from now (a-la Star Trek), the captain will tell with a stern voice

I hope & wonder that if some spaceship find this space object a thousand or a million years from now (a-la Star Trek), the captain will tell with a stern voice (ofc like Patrick Stewart's) to the Science Officer "calculate the trajectory of the object, and give the coordinates to the Helm. then engage with Warp 9. I will be in my quarters getting some tea". EDIT: I hope it's Jean-Luc and not The Borg!!

2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
It's spooky to know that it will outlive Earth and likely be the last remaining physical evidence that humans were ever here.
- jacobgkau 2y ago
  Why do you think it's particularly likely that two tiny objects running out of power will not only outlive Earth, but also any future objects sent from Earth to do the same things they're doing now? Or are you betting on the lack of future space exploration probes and relatively quick destruction of the Earth?
  - f001 2y ago
    If I were to guess it would be the latter. We seem to be heading for it rather quickly at least.
  - misnome 2y ago
    The chance of them hitting anything in the time it takes the sun to swallow the earth is probably tiny? As for more probes - getting more speed than these did efficiently is probably hard, let alone the fact that they don’t generate personal profit probably stops them being politically viable for a while…
    - hackeraccount 2y ago
      I was just reading a book that touched on Ancient Rome. The author tried to convey the significance of the Council of Nicaea by comparing it to the furor over Global Warming. I only mention that to say that the motivations of people in the future will probably seem odd to us and it's possible ours may seem equally odd to them. Not odd in the sense that they are intellectually inscrutable but - like people getting excited over the matters theological - that they're emotionally inscrutable.
      - linguaz 2y ago
        > I was just reading a book that touched on Ancient Rome. The author tried to convey the significance of the Council of Nicaea by comparing it to the furor over Global Warming. Could you please share the title of this book?
    - jacobgkau 2y ago
      > getting more speed than these did efficiently is probably hard, A new probe wouldn't necessarily need to travel faster than these to not be on Earth when the sun dies. The idea of there being a minuscule chance the Voyager probes hit anything is fair, but even a third one of the exact same model launched in the exact same direction has just as much chance of surviving just as long, barring wild speculation that could easily go either way.
      - misnome 2y ago
        Right, of course, I think I misread the parents’ > but also any future objects sent from Earth to do the same things As somehow saying something about the “furthest”
    - floxy 2y ago
      >getting more speed than these did efficiently is probably hard Here is one approach using solar sails that would get up to 22 AU/year (~6 times faster than Voyager 1): https://youtu.be/NQFqDKRAROI?si=Ol20sGMnsEMhRVf1&t=883 https://youtu.be/NQFqDKRAROI?si=Ol20sGMnsEMhRVf1&t=883 ...and then further down in TRL: using laser pushed light sails to get over 10% of the speed of light: https://ia800108.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/24/items/wikipedia-scholarly-sources-corpus/10.2514.zip&file=10.2514%252F3.8632.pdf https://ia800108.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/24...
  - mystified5016 2y ago
    IIRC we've projected that there's nothing in their path for millions of years, as far as we can reasonably predict. Whether humans will still exist or our planet is a glowing radioactive waste by the time the voyagers encounter a new star is not a given.
- nyokodo 2y ago
  > It's spooky to know that it will outlive Earth and likely be the last remaining physical evidence that humans were ever here. Although eventually a rather obscure form of evidence as it'll gradually become a melted blob of constituent materials from cosmic rays.
- ars 2y ago
  Actually that's pretty unlikely - Earth will last longer than Voyager. The Sun becoming a red giant is the risk for Earth. We're talking 5 billion years here. But the voyagers have interstellar particles and dust to contend with, 5 billion years of abrasion from particles will wear them away to nothing. On top of that they will eventually come near a random star which will eat them, or at least damage them. For example in 40,000 years they'll come pretty near some stars. In 5 billion years? Lots of stars. Earth will easily outlive them.
  - ChocolateGod 2y ago
    > come near a random star which will eat them Not a physicist, but I thought this didn't really happen in orbital mechanics, instead they'll just orbit said star.
    - wkat4242 2y ago
      Depends on their relative speed and angle.
    - ars 2y ago
      If they are far enough away from the star that's correct. i.e. if the star was a point source. But if they get close they'll slow down by interaction with the atmosphere of the star. Which is more likely than random chance because the star is attracting them.
immibis 2y ago
"We determine that previous generations of earthlings believed spacecraft could be powered by lumps of lead. Silly earthlings."
smolder 2y ago
Unfortunately the sort of exponential advance of technology we imagined through Star Trek seems to have been overoptimistic. If humans ever leave the solar system it'll be on something like a generational ship, or in some kind of freezedried/informational form where we're reconstituted much later at our destination.
rob74 2y ago
I assume you are aware of the plot of the first Star Trek movie (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Motion_Picture https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Motion_Pictur...)? Picard was not involved however...
- ilamont 2y ago
  Voyager 6!
hackeraccount 2y ago
What would be found here in a thousand years much less a million? My attitude is that it's something similar to getting ready for the end of the world by putting money in a savings account. If the money (or gold under your bed, cans of beans in the basement or even a pistol in your nightstand) does any good then it's not the end of the world. If the universe is so crowded or so good at finding things like voyager that it's found in a meaningful (i.e. before humanity goes extinct or joins the godhead) time frame then we would have that encounter if voyager existed or not.
- HankB99 2y ago
  > What would be found here in a thousand years much less a million? Possibly an advanced civilization that says "No, not ours."
  - netsharc 2y ago
    Hah.. "That belongs to the previous tenants. The probe is one of the few interesting things they did, otherwise they were terrible planet owners, they fought with each other and didn't appreaciate what they had, they wrecked the whole place."
0cf8612b2e1e 2y ago
It might also be used by the Deceptions to record history in an attempt to prevent the Autobots from winning the war in Cybertron. (Assuming my hazy memories of Beast Wars are correct)
outworlder 2y ago
> calculate the trajectory of the object Easier said than done. The Earth will be nowhere near where it is today. I assume such advanced civilization would be able to do the calculations, but it's going to be tricky. I hope they share with us their ways to solve the n-body problem.
- ForOldHack 2y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_program#:~:text=The%20trajectories%20that%20enabled%20the%20Voyager%20spacecraft,reduced%20its%20velocity%20away%20from%20the%20Sun. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_program#:~:text=The%20...
- wkat4242 2y ago
  Don't forget we also included an engraved disk with our galaxy postal address so that isn't even necessary.

2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago

It's spooky to know that it will outlive Earth and likely be the last remaining physical evidence that humans were ever here.

jacobgkau 2y ago
Why do you think it's particularly likely that two tiny objects running out of power will not only outlive Earth, but also any future objects sent from Earth to do the same things they're doing now? Or are you betting on the lack of future space exploration probes and relatively quick destruction of the Earth?
- f001 2y ago
  If I were to guess it would be the latter. We seem to be heading for it rather quickly at least.
- misnome 2y ago
  The chance of them hitting anything in the time it takes the sun to swallow the earth is probably tiny? As for more probes - getting more speed than these did efficiently is probably hard, let alone the fact that they don’t generate personal profit probably stops them being politically viable for a while…
  - hackeraccount 2y ago
    I was just reading a book that touched on Ancient Rome. The author tried to convey the significance of the Council of Nicaea by comparing it to the furor over Global Warming. I only mention that to say that the motivations of people in the future will probably seem odd to us and it's possible ours may seem equally odd to them. Not odd in the sense that they are intellectually inscrutable but - like people getting excited over the matters theological - that they're emotionally inscrutable.
    - linguaz 2y ago
      > I was just reading a book that touched on Ancient Rome. The author tried to convey the significance of the Council of Nicaea by comparing it to the furor over Global Warming. Could you please share the title of this book?
  - jacobgkau 2y ago
    > getting more speed than these did efficiently is probably hard, A new probe wouldn't necessarily need to travel faster than these to not be on Earth when the sun dies. The idea of there being a minuscule chance the Voyager probes hit anything is fair, but even a third one of the exact same model launched in the exact same direction has just as much chance of surviving just as long, barring wild speculation that could easily go either way.
    - misnome 2y ago
      Right, of course, I think I misread the parents’ > but also any future objects sent from Earth to do the same things As somehow saying something about the “furthest”
  - floxy 2y ago
    >getting more speed than these did efficiently is probably hard Here is one approach using solar sails that would get up to 22 AU/year (~6 times faster than Voyager 1): https://youtu.be/NQFqDKRAROI?si=Ol20sGMnsEMhRVf1&t=883 https://youtu.be/NQFqDKRAROI?si=Ol20sGMnsEMhRVf1&t=883 ...and then further down in TRL: using laser pushed light sails to get over 10% of the speed of light: https://ia800108.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/24/items/wikipedia-scholarly-sources-corpus/10.2514.zip&file=10.2514%252F3.8632.pdf https://ia800108.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/24...
- mystified5016 2y ago
  IIRC we've projected that there's nothing in their path for millions of years, as far as we can reasonably predict. Whether humans will still exist or our planet is a glowing radioactive waste by the time the voyagers encounter a new star is not a given.
nyokodo 2y ago
> It's spooky to know that it will outlive Earth and likely be the last remaining physical evidence that humans were ever here. Although eventually a rather obscure form of evidence as it'll gradually become a melted blob of constituent materials from cosmic rays.
ars 2y ago
Actually that's pretty unlikely - Earth will last longer than Voyager. The Sun becoming a red giant is the risk for Earth. We're talking 5 billion years here. But the voyagers have interstellar particles and dust to contend with, 5 billion years of abrasion from particles will wear them away to nothing. On top of that they will eventually come near a random star which will eat them, or at least damage them. For example in 40,000 years they'll come pretty near some stars. In 5 billion years? Lots of stars. Earth will easily outlive them.
- ChocolateGod 2y ago
  > come near a random star which will eat them Not a physicist, but I thought this didn't really happen in orbital mechanics, instead they'll just orbit said star.
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    Depends on their relative speed and angle.
  - ars 2y ago
    If they are far enough away from the star that's correct. i.e. if the star was a point source. But if they get close they'll slow down by interaction with the atmosphere of the star. Which is more likely than random chance because the star is attracting them.

immibis 2y ago

"We determine that previous generations of earthlings believed spacecraft could be powered by lumps of lead. Silly earthlings."

smolder 2y ago

Unfortunately the sort of exponential advance of technology we imagined through Star Trek seems to have been overoptimistic. If humans ever leave the solar system it'll be on something like a generational ship, or in some kind of freezedried/informational form where we're reconstituted much later at our destination.

rob74 2y ago

I assume you are aware of the plot of the first Star Trek movie (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Motion_Picture https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Motion_Pictur...)? Picard was not involved however...

ilamont 2y ago
Voyager 6!

hackeraccount 2y ago

What would be found here in a thousand years much less a million? My attitude is that it's something similar to getting ready for the end of the world by putting money in a savings account. If the money (or gold under your bed, cans of beans in the basement or even a pistol in your nightstand) does any good then it's not the end of the world. If the universe is so crowded or so good at finding things like voyager that it's found in a meaningful (i.e. before humanity goes extinct or joins the godhead) time frame then we would have that encounter if voyager existed or not.

HankB99 2y ago
> What would be found here in a thousand years much less a million? Possibly an advanced civilization that says "No, not ours."
- netsharc 2y ago
  Hah.. "That belongs to the previous tenants. The probe is one of the few interesting things they did, otherwise they were terrible planet owners, they fought with each other and didn't appreaciate what they had, they wrecked the whole place."

0cf8612b2e1e 2y ago

It might also be used by the Deceptions to record history in an attempt to prevent the Autobots from winning the war in Cybertron. (Assuming my hazy memories of Beast Wars are correct)

outworlder 2y ago

> calculate the trajectory of the object Easier said than done. The Earth will be nowhere near where it is today. I assume such advanced civilization would be able to do the calculations, but it's going to be tricky. I hope they share with us their ways to solve the n-body problem.

ForOldHack 2y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_program#:~:text=The%20trajectories%20that%20enabled%20the%20Voyager%20spacecraft,reduced%20its%20velocity%20away%20from%20the%20Sun. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_program#:~:text=The%20...
wkat4242 2y ago
Don't forget we also included an engraved disk with our galaxy postal address so that isn't even necessary.