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So Stone can't say how long it will be before Voyager passes through it. "I can't tell you whether it's days, months or years. I really can't tell you," he sai

by gokhan 14y ago

So Stone can't say how long it will be before Voyager passes through it. "I can't tell you whether it's days, months or years. I really can't tell you," he said. I'm not complaining, but that's why we hear this story over and over again, every 3 months for the last 10 years.

dirktheman 14y ago
It depends on your definition of ‘edge of solar sytem’, as there are many definitions around. What amazes me the most is that we built something 35 years ago, shot it into space and it’s still going strong, sending radio signals from a place so far away that it takes 16 hours to get here. They supplied it with an 8-track disc that contains information about earth and humanity. To me, this speaks volumes about the brilliant naivety of that era, and I mean naivety in the most positive way possible: an uncurbed enthousiasm where you don’t see all the implications and problems on your path, but just execute. Did they think about the fact that 8-track records would be outdated by the time the Voyager would reach a destination where alien life would be possible? It seems not. But they built the thing, and it’s still doing what is’s supposed to do. This mindset has been missing for a long time, although the new Mars Rover project has got my hopes up again.
- alberich 14y ago
  > What amazes me the most is that we built something 35 years ago, shot it into space and it’s still going strong, sending radio signals from a place so far away that it takes 16 hours to get here. I completely agree. I remember reading about Voyager 1 and 2 back in 1989, when I was a just a child, and thinking how cool it was that humans could build something to send into space and it could last so long. 23 years later, it is even more impressive that it is still out there and kicking... and may last another 10 years :) It is very impressive, to say the least.
  - slamdunc 14y ago
    One thing that really stuck in my mind when I heard the story was that, even 35 years later, "we're now a substantial fraction of a 'light-day' from the Earth..." With the term "light-years" most commonly mentioned (eg, from a few days ago: http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/astronomers-find-sugar-400-light-years-from-earth-2012092/ http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/astronomers-find-su... ) I think hearing about light-hours and light-days helps to put things a little more into perspective (though it's all still mind-boggling).
- jambo 14y ago
  I agree with you that it speaks volumes about the optimism of the era. That said, Sagan & Druyan gave a great deal of thought to the "message in a bottle": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record
  - dirktheman 14y ago
    Thanks for the link! I do wonder however if an alien, should it encounter one, could figure out the symbols on the cover. The 'record player' symbol is pretty self-explanatory if you already know what a record player is, but I suspect that to an average 16-year old teenager it's complete gibberish...
    - cryptoz 14y ago
      > to an average 16-year old teenager it's complete gibberish... But an average 16 year old teenager isn't going to be the one to find the record floating in space. Rather, by definition, if the record is found, it will be found by an extremely advanced spacefaring civilization. Hopefully, they can decode it.
      - mbell 14y ago
        > Hopefully, they can decode it. There is a fair amount of debate regarding whether or not this would actually be a good thing, for example Stephen Hawking doesn't think so: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8642558.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8642558.stm
        prawks 14y ago
        I can't remember where I heard this theory, but essentially it goes like this: If you see an ant on the sidewalk when you're walking down the street, you don't stop to communicate with it, or teach it how to build a television. The theory goes that a civilization with the ability to travel through interstellar space would have a similar knowledge gap to us as we do to ants. Granted, you also don't stop to ask it if you can build a house on top of its ant hill, so I suppose the analogy works both ways.
kabdib 14y ago
"Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?" :-) The fact that this old spacecraft is still sending us useful data is pretty neat, and I don't mind being reminded of it. I remember the various flybys (Jupiter, Saturn, and my local PBS station's "Neptune All Night"). In the age of consumer products that last a couple of years before they disintegrate, a 35 year old machine still operating in a hostile environment is an inspiration.

by gokhan 14y ago

dirktheman 14y ago

It depends on your definition of ‘edge of solar sytem’, as there are many definitions around. What amazes me the most is that we built something 35 years ago, shot it into space and it’s still going strong, sending radio signals from a place so far away that it takes 16 hours to get here. They supplied it with an 8-track disc that contains information about earth and humanity. To me, this speaks volumes about the brilliant naivety of that era, and I mean naivety in the most positive way possible: an uncurbed enthousiasm where you don’t see all the implications and problems on your path, but just execute. Did they think about the fact that 8-track records would be outdated by the time the Voyager would reach a destination where alien life would be possible? It seems not. But they built the thing, and it’s still doing what is’s supposed to do. This mindset has been missing for a long time, although the new Mars Rover project has got my hopes up again.

alberich 14y ago
> What amazes me the most is that we built something 35 years ago, shot it into space and it’s still going strong, sending radio signals from a place so far away that it takes 16 hours to get here. I completely agree. I remember reading about Voyager 1 and 2 back in 1989, when I was a just a child, and thinking how cool it was that humans could build something to send into space and it could last so long. 23 years later, it is even more impressive that it is still out there and kicking... and may last another 10 years :) It is very impressive, to say the least.
- slamdunc 14y ago
  One thing that really stuck in my mind when I heard the story was that, even 35 years later, "we're now a substantial fraction of a 'light-day' from the Earth..." With the term "light-years" most commonly mentioned (eg, from a few days ago: http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/astronomers-find-sugar-400-light-years-from-earth-2012092/ http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/astronomers-find-su... ) I think hearing about light-hours and light-days helps to put things a little more into perspective (though it's all still mind-boggling).
jambo 14y ago
I agree with you that it speaks volumes about the optimism of the era. That said, Sagan & Druyan gave a great deal of thought to the "message in a bottle": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record
- dirktheman 14y ago
  Thanks for the link! I do wonder however if an alien, should it encounter one, could figure out the symbols on the cover. The 'record player' symbol is pretty self-explanatory if you already know what a record player is, but I suspect that to an average 16-year old teenager it's complete gibberish...
  - cryptoz 14y ago
    > to an average 16-year old teenager it's complete gibberish... But an average 16 year old teenager isn't going to be the one to find the record floating in space. Rather, by definition, if the record is found, it will be found by an extremely advanced spacefaring civilization. Hopefully, they can decode it.
    - mbell 14y ago
      > Hopefully, they can decode it. There is a fair amount of debate regarding whether or not this would actually be a good thing, for example Stephen Hawking doesn't think so: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8642558.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8642558.stm
      - prawks 14y ago
        I can't remember where I heard this theory, but essentially it goes like this: If you see an ant on the sidewalk when you're walking down the street, you don't stop to communicate with it, or teach it how to build a television. The theory goes that a civilization with the ability to travel through interstellar space would have a similar knowledge gap to us as we do to ants. Granted, you also don't stop to ask it if you can build a house on top of its ant hill, so I suppose the analogy works both ways.

kabdib 14y ago

"Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?" :-) The fact that this old spacecraft is still sending us useful data is pretty neat, and I don't mind being reminded of it. I remember the various flybys (Jupiter, Saturn, and my local PBS station's "Neptune All Night"). In the age of consumer products that last a couple of years before they disintegrate, a 35 year old machine still operating in a hostile environment is an inspiration.