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> Voyager 1 can keep talking to Earth for about another decade. That's how long the plutonium that powers it should last. After it falls silent, it will still k
by noinput 14y ago
> Voyager 1 can keep talking to Earth for about another decade. That's how long the plutonium that powers it should last. After it falls silent, it will still keep going. But it will be about 40,000 years before it wanders close to another star.
Something about that last paragraph that brings the whole article full circle with lofty, child-like dreams. Makes me wonder if mankind will create the technology (and find a way possible) to go out into deep space and pass Voyager before that happens.
- ChuckMcM 14y agoI am often inspired by the Voyager program because I see it as one where the program planners did not put limits on themselves. And the fact that it would be 40,000 years before the problem came close to another star was also fascinating. And then I consider that its only been in the last decade were we've been looking at asteroids in an effort to identify potential disasters before they happen. If some alien probe went through our solar system, it is only just now that we would notice it at the size of Voyager, and then we wouldn't pay attention because if it re-entered the atmosphere it wouldn't do significant damage. Doesn't bode well for the aliens seeing it unless they are looking for it.
- ars 14y agoThe only current candidate is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons but I don't think it has enough plutonium to last as long as Voyager, plus it's not as fast as Voyager and will never pass it. Voyager is so fast because it took advantage of an unusual planetary alignment.