

Voyager: Still dancing 17 billion km from Earth - JacobAldridge
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12688246

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OstiaAntica
There's something inspiring about this robot we built careening on the edge of
the solar system. We should be launching another one today, with even more
ambitious exploration goals.

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yaix
That would be great. However, we just spent a trillion dollars to destroy a
few cities in some desert in the Middle East, killing some 100k people on the
way. For some reason that seemed to be a better idea than exploring space. :(

>> in the next few years, leave the space dominated by the influence >> of our
Sun and enter the province between the stars - interstellar >> space.

That sounds just awesome.

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spoiledtechie
Its astonishing how good the engineers built this device and such other
devices like the land rovers.

Anyone know the specs of Voyager? What sensors it actually has on it?

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alex_stoddard
<http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/instruments.html>

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daviding
Thanks for that link. I just spent 20 minutes playing 'alien' and trying to
figure out who, where and what we are from these images:

<http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/sceneearth.html>

I love the premise.

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CWIZO
"Please note that these images are copyright protected. Reproduction without
permission of the copyright holder is prohibited."

So the Aliens first have to come to earth to ask permission to make copies for
analysis :) ? Smart NASA, smart!

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ck2
Hmm, 32 hour ping time.

I wonder if they can do another photo of the earth or if it would be
pointless.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot>

("only" 6 billion km away in 1990)

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JonnieCache
The earth takes up only one pixel on that image, that's kinda its
significance.

Now they're 11 billion km further away, the earth is obviously never going to
be detectable using that camera.

Maybe they could do "Pale Blue Dot II" when it's sufficiently far from
neptune.

~~~
bryanh
Depending on which side Neptune & Voyager is on, the Earth might be closer
than Neptune... ;-)

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corin_
But it's almost four times bigger than Earth...

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prawn
I've posted this before but it's relevant again now and might interest those
who missed it the first time. Please, no need for upvotes because I got them
last time.

\---

I hear you. I actually managed to wrangle Voyager 1 into a brief nerd-out
component of my wedding speech:

"Like me, the space probe Voyager 1 launched in 1977. Unlike me, it is one of
the pinnacles of human achievement. It is currently the farthest man-made
object from the Earth but it could not have achieved its speed and distance to
date without gravity assists from Saturn and Jupiter. When space probes are
launched, their path is often planned to get a gravitational slingshot from
the most significant entities in our planetary family, to take them further
than their launch alone might do. That boost is something invaluable, natural
and efficient."

"I don't want to call my parents, (mother's name) and (father's name), giant
balls of gas, but the boost, the impact they have had on my life, on my
sister's life, my brother's life and now the lives of our partners, is huge."

[And then, later on] "Everybody, wish me luck that in our future together,
there are only a few occasions where (bride's name) wishes I was the farthest
made-made object from Earth."

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charlesju
How does it get powered?

~~~
mturmon
Here's some more about the RTGs:

<http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/spacecraftlife.html>

They used to provide about 470W, now it is down to the mid-200s.

~~~
dublinclontarf
Could one of these ("nuclear batteries") be used to power one of those
exoskeletons from Lockheed or Raytheon?

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burgerbrain
It's been a while since I worked the numbers, but I believe that humans
regularly put out more power than that during daily activities. Assuming the
exoskeleton was extremely efficient, it wouldn't really get you all that much
advantage.

~~~
cullenking
A cyclist working hard will put out 300ish watts, so, during daily activities,
unless you are talking extremely short bursts like lifting/jumping, we put out
much less. Store a good amount of power in some capacitor system and that
would be enough to power an exoskeleton I bet.

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jemfinch
When will Voyager encounter the machine planet and become self-aware, though?

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nkassis
wasn't it something like 300 years from now? 24th century.

