NASA lost contact with the interstellar Voyager 1 spacecraft for nearly a week after a technical glitch shut off the probe's main transmitter. Using Voyager's weaker backup transmitter, engineers are assessing the problem from 15 billion miles away.
  • uservoid1@lemmy.worldEnglish
    25·
    4 hours ago

    Every few months there is a similar such story about this ancient marvel of technology and the people remotely maintaining it against all odds.

    I can imagine a headline 100 years from now:

    “Engineers are modifying Voyager 1 decorative panel bolt into a functional interstellar communicator”

      • Zier@fedia.io
        3·
        3 hours ago

        We need to start a new prank. People should randomly start phone conversations with, “This is a collect call from Richard, do you accept the charges?”., when you phone a friend. It’s funny because no one does collect calls on cell phones. It’s ironic & stupid at the same time.

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
      1031·
      9 hours ago

      I’m only 41 years old.

      This recievier has been working for my whole life, goes out of service 15 billion miles away, turns on a backup reciever, and is now back in contact with NASA.

      …but the ice cream machine at McDonalds is still broken.

        • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
          61·
          4 hours ago

          1. The guy is in Texas and not cooking over pecan wood. I’m making this point to show that he’s ignorant. That doesn’t mean dumb, it just means he doesn’t know any better.

          2. We all know you shouldn’t use that on your locks these days and can easily Google why. He wasn’t a technology guy and only really knew what he read or what an old guy who didn’t know shit told him. He did things the way he thought was right but he had some pretty big blind spots. Maybe he didn’t know about 3-in-1 oil.

          3. Plus it was a cartoon written by people who probably didn’t know any better and I’m taking both that fact and your comment far too seriously (or I’m just making an elaborate joke, that’s for the reader to decide).

  • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
    37·
    9 hours ago

    It’s sad it’ll probably lose contact relatively soon. Does anyone know if there are any plans for a new long distance probe?

    • roofuskit@lemmy.worldEnglish
      45·
      9 hours ago

      They’re already out there. Just don’t get as much news as Voyager. Unfortunately I don’t think any will be capable of lasting as long since we stopped using the radio isotope generators. New horizons is currently in the Kupier belt. It’s the 5th such probe to reach escape velocity from our solar system. Pioneer 10 and 11 were the other non-voyager probes.

      Edit: I was incorrect, new horizons does use an RTG for power. But right now its mission is slated to end in 2029. I wonder if it will be kept alive like the Voyager probes.

      Edit 2: yeah, the RTG is slated to run out of power to run the transmitters in the 2030s. It was originally designed to be more powerful but the DOE delayed delivery of the plutonium 238 required.

    • luves2spooge@lemmy.world
      16·
      9 hours ago

      I think for the Voyager launches the planets and the sun were aligned in such a way that the probes could be slingshotted around them to gain speed. I think such an alignment is quite rare?

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
        10·
        6 hours ago

        It’s a bit more complicated than that. New Horizons actually went way faster than the Voyager probes, getting to Pluto in only 9.5 years. It took Voyager 2 just slightly longer than 12 years to reach Neptune for comparison. The planetary alignment you are thinking about was due to relative proximity. Obviously you can’t use Saturn to slingshot you to Uranus if they are on opposite sides of the solar system. All the outer planets were going to be on the same side of the solar system, allowing the Voyager probes to visit them all in succession.