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Voyager 1 is about to reach one light-day from Earth

scienceclock.com

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Re: Voyager 1 is about to reach one light-day from Earth

#41

Post by malfist »

Aperocky wrote: post #33
glenstein wrote: post #30

Not that we would literally do this with Voyager, but it makes me wonder at the potential utility of a string of probes, one sent every couple of [insert correct time interval, decades, centuries?], to effectively create a communication relay stretching out into deep space somewhere. My understanding with the Voyagers 1 and 2 is (a) they will run out of power before they would ever get far enough to benefit from a re…

Not useful, because the signal are too weak to be picked up probe to probe. On earth, the tiny signal from Voyager at this distance is picked up by dish the size of a football field; same with sending of the signal.

The dish isn't the size of a football field, it's a 70 meter dish (football field is 110 meters), it can however, transmit at 400 kilowatts of power

Re: Voyager 1 is about to reach one light-day from Earth

#42

Post by jcims »

Aperocky wrote: post #33
glenstein wrote: post #30

Not that we would literally do this with Voyager, but it makes me wonder at the potential utility of a string of probes, one sent every couple of [insert correct time interval, decades, centuries?], to effectively create a communication relay stretching out into deep space somewhere. My understanding with the Voyagers 1 and 2 is (a) they will run out of power before they would ever get far enough to benefit from a re…

Not useful, because the signal are too weak to be picked up probe to probe. On earth, the tiny signal from Voyager at this distance is picked up by dish the size of a football field; same with sending of the signal.

Laser communication could potentially address some of those issues.

Re: Voyager 1 is about to reach one light-day from Earth

#43

Post by malfist »

pjerem wrote: post #38
acec wrote: post #26

50 years for 1 light day... so to arrive Alpha Centauri that is 4.2 light years far away... 76549 years and 364 days :-)

Less than that is you are constantly accelerating.

Longer than that if you are constantly decelerating.

Re: Voyager 1 is about to reach one light-day from Earth

#44

Post by chistev »

detectivestory wrote: post #18
chistev wrote: post #11

Wrote about the Voyager probes two days ago in my blog - The two Voyager spacecraft are the greatest love letters humanity has ever sent into the void. Voyager 2 actually launched first, on August 20, 1977, followed by Voyager 1 on September 5, 1977. Because Voyager 1 was on a faster, shorter trajectory (it used a rare alignment to slingshot past both Jupiter and Saturn quicker), it overtook its twin and became the f…

And that love letter came with a very nice mixtape. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record

Yea, I mentioned that too.

Re: Voyager 1 is about to reach one light-day from Earth

#46

Post by onethought »

elashri wrote: post #31

Wow, this gives a reflection about our future. The nearest potentially habitable planet known is Proxima Centauri b, which orbits the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri about 4 light‑years from Earth (at least it is in a habitable zone of its star) [1]. So we don't have a choice actually except protecting and make sure our planet survives. That's regardless if it really would be able to support life as we know or not (p…

Or we learn how to make uninhabitable planets habitable. Would also help us “save” this one.

(Funny how we say “save the planet” when we really mean “save people/complex life”).

Re: Voyager 1 is about to reach one light-day from Earth

#47

Post by SAI_Peregrinus »

malfist wrote: post #43
pjerem wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Less than that is you are constantly accelerating.

Longer than that if you are constantly decelerating.

And exactly that if you're talking about Voyager 1, which is on a ballistic trajectory.

Re: Voyager 1 is about to reach one light-day from Earth

#48

Post by BobbyTables2 »

Aperocky wrote: post #33
glenstein wrote: post #30

Not that we would literally do this with Voyager, but it makes me wonder at the potential utility of a string of probes, one sent every couple of [insert correct time interval, decades, centuries?], to effectively create a communication relay stretching out into deep space somewhere. My understanding with the Voyagers 1 and 2 is (a) they will run out of power before they would ever get far enough to benefit from a re…

Not useful, because the signal are too weak to be picked up probe to probe. On earth, the tiny signal from Voyager at this distance is picked up by dish the size of a football field; same with sending of the signal.

Football field might even be too small…

Wasn’t Arecibo used for Voyager?

Re: Voyager 1 is about to reach one light-day from Earth

#49

Post by pseudocomposer »

Aperocky wrote: post #33
glenstein wrote: post #30

Not that we would literally do this with Voyager, but it makes me wonder at the potential utility of a string of probes, one sent every couple of [insert correct time interval, decades, centuries?], to effectively create a communication relay stretching out into deep space somewhere. My understanding with the Voyagers 1 and 2 is (a) they will run out of power before they would ever get far enough to benefit from a re…

Not useful, because the signal are too weak to be picked up probe to probe. On earth, the tiny signal from Voyager at this distance is picked up by dish the size of a football field; same with sending of the signal.

This is a silly counterexample - why would we launch them that far apart? It’s a terrible idea for multiple reasons. We’d want them close together, with some redundancy as well, in case of failures.

What dish size would be required for a “cylindrical/tubular mesh” of probes, say, 1AU apart (ie Earth-Sun distance)? I’m pretty sure that would be manageable, but open to being wrong. (For reference, Voyager 1 is 169AU from Earth, but I have no idea how dish size vs. signal strength works: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/where-are-voyager-1...)

Re: Voyager 1 is about to reach one light-day from Earth

#50

Post by nixpulvis »

elashri wrote: post #31

Wow, this gives a reflection about our future. The nearest potentially habitable planet known is Proxima Centauri b, which orbits the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri about 4 light‑years from Earth (at least it is in a habitable zone of its star) [1]. So we don't have a choice actually except protecting and make sure our planet survives. That's regardless if it really would be able to support life as we know or not (p…

Space is cool, and I support the scientific work some of its pioneers discover. But the category of people who believe space travel is somehow the solution to problems on Earth give me headaches.
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