
A New Plan for Keeping NASA's Oldest Explorers Going - lelf
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7446
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mabbo
What I find fascinating about the Voyager probes is that we can't replace them
in less than decades, barring some new tech breakthroughs. They're so far out
there that in all likelihood it will be many centuries before anything is
further out than them.

V1 is over 145 AU from the sun, traveling 3.6AU per year, or around
60,000km/h, 17km/s. Even if you got a probe moving twice as fast, it would
take close to 40 years to catch up. And moving a probe twice as fast (after
escaping the sun's gravity well) would take a heck of a lot of energy. More
likely you'd need a bunch of gravity assists from other plants, and waiting
for the right time for those takes even longer.

They're irreplaceable. They're ancient. And they're still doing science.

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beamatronic
It always upsets me that there aren’t assembly lines of successful designs,
flinging them in every direction

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lettergram
It’s not really practical. For one, that’s expensive. In addition, our space
crafts are becoming increasingly better designed. Eventually, as in 50 years,
it’s increasingly likely we can do your suggestion at 1/1000 the cost with
more sensors. It probably makes more sense to invest in developing future
technology than doing your suggestion today.

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marak830
I'm not arguing your point but I am wondering, will we say the same thing in
10/20/50 years?

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lettergram
I wonder if these instruments are actually providing accurate measurements
though... if they weren’t designed for such temperatures how can we be sure
that they are not introducing artifacts?

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TaylorAlexander
Well I don’t think scientists blindly trust the instruments. They probably say
“instrument X provided measurement Y” and then they can argue for decades as
to the accuracy of the measurement.

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PunksATawnyFill
The fact that we can even receive the minuscule signal from these things is
incredible.

What a great human achievement.

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SomewhatLikely
It's also impressive they can receive our signals. For us receiving we can use
I guess a bigger dish. For them receiving I guess we can just blast a stronger
signal.

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killjoywashere
Have we sent any missions over the solar poles?

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drmpeg
Yes.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(spacecraft)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_\(spacecraft\))

