Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

511–520 of 649 posts

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#511

Post by nemo44x »

gorgoiler wrote: post #354
nemo44x wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know how well it holds today but for some time it was known that running certain computations on existing hardware would take longer than waiting for new hardware and running when available.

My life archive is available to my heirs and successors as long as they know the LUKS password for any of the numerous storage devices I leave behind. It’s risky though — the passwords aren’t known to them yet and one logistical slip up means the disk may be unusable. That is, however, until some point in the future when they will have a computer powerful enough to just break the key and feast upon my cat photos, tax…

Why not use a dead man’s switch that reveals the password if you don’t respond within a year?

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#512

Post by GTP »

galeaspablo wrote: post #505
GTP wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> illustrates this reality being true for hash functions (where similar principles as symmetric and asymmetric encryption apply) I think you're making a bit of confusion. hash functions are part of symmetric key cryptography, while asymmetric cryptography is public key cryptography that is very different from hash functions.

No. Hash functions can be used outside of symmetric encryption. Which is the wording I used. In any case, the overall point remains. Short of the one time pad you can’t build a provably flawless scheme.

They can be used outside symmetric encryption, e.g. in signature schemes, but the hashing primitives are part of symmetric cryptography.

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#513

Post by mlrtime »

wannacboatmovie wrote: post #436
mike_d wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Golden Record was supposed to include the Beetles "Here Comes The Sun" but the label wanted more in licensing fees than the whole thing cost to produce.

Yoko trying to collect royalties from aliens in outerspace was not on my bingo card.

Any bingo card with Yoko would have alien royalties be the *least* crazy square.

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#514

Post by kadoban »

lIl-IIIl wrote: post #362
kadoban wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's every possibility that neither Voyager will ever arrive anywhere ever again. If they do, it's going to be after our galaxy collides with another, and the place they arrive at may not even exist yet. https://www.space.com/predicting-voyager-golden-records-dist...

While the Milky Way galaxy is on course to collide with Andromeda galaxy in 4.5 billion years, that will not make Voyager's arrival anywhere more likely, since the stars are far enough apart that they will not be affected. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_...

My understanding is that it just makes it less predictable once that happens. We don't know exactly where all those stars are, and it gets chaotic once they start interacting.

It probably is a _bit_ more likely as well, you suddenly have ~2x the stars near you and some of them are moving much faster relative to you, it's just not a sure thing by any means.

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#515

Post by mlrtime »

preisschild wrote: post #483
nonethewiser wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if your cynical doom porn is true you’re wrong because both of those people, 1 in particular, are pushing space exploration forward.

That one guy also took money from his space exploration company to buy a social media site so that he can be even more of an online edgelord. Not really trustworthy...

But why do YOU need to trust him? Someone can be crazy on twitter AND be the the first (possible) person to get a man on Mars.

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#516

Post by mlrtime »

iAMkenough wrote: post #392
nonethewiser wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if your cynical doom porn is true you’re wrong because both of those people, 1 in particular, are pushing space exploration forward.

I think you’re both right. They’re cornering a market with little competition because of the high cost barrier, with the hopes of personally owning/controlling space travel and any future colonization of other planets. I believe their primary motivation is monopolization and money, even if the science community experiences a benefit.

I disagree, I think it's the opposite. Men have lofty dreams, they're also realists. How can you realistically get a man on Mars? Use all their talents to work with a government? Or use it to create enough capital to do it yourself (And piss off some people at the same time for fun)?

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#517

Post by [deleted] »

galeaspablo wrote: post #505
GTP wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> illustrates this reality being true for hash functions (where similar principles as symmetric and asymmetric encryption apply) I think you're making a bit of confusion. hash functions are part of symmetric key cryptography, while asymmetric cryptography is public key cryptography that is very different from hash functions.

No. Hash functions can be used outside of symmetric encryption. Which is the wording I used. In any case, the overall point remains. Short of the one time pad you can’t build a provably flawless scheme.

[deleted]

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#518

Post by mlrtime »

jacquesm wrote: post #469
telotortium wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Launching more Voyagers is like tossing heavy metal disks into a random deep-sea part of the ocean and hoping one of them lands next to a benthic creature that can miraculously appreciate its significance. Not only is God more plausible, so is the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

God and the Flying Spaghetti Monster aren't real. But Voyager is.

You missed the pun.

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#519

Post by mcv »

ben_w wrote: post #440
puzzledobserver wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't know that the speed of sound in the interstellar medium is 100 km/s. That seems surprisingly high, given that there's more atmospheric material here on the surface of Earth, and the speed of sound is only about 330 m/s. How can sound travel so fast in the interstellar medium?

In an ideal gas, speed of sound depends on the temperature and molar mass, but not density as the density terms cancel out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideal_gas#Speed_of_sound It's hot, so the speed of sound is high.

Can you use it to transmit actual sound? Would it be possible to use this for short-range communication in space? Or is this only a very theoretical kind of sound?

Re: Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth

#520

Post by sumtechguy »

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #394
londons_explore wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the contents of your computer is anything like the contents of most old people's attics, there is a good chance your descendants really don't want to go through all of it. They'll just chuck it in the trash without even opening it. Turns out the next generation has their own life to worry about, and doesn't care much for their ancestors' stuff (unless it's money... they love money...).

Pretty much. Anecdotes about lives of elderly people are nice when you are sitting an evening with a glass of wine and plate of cheese. Otherwise who cares? Nothing is worse than trying to go through bunch of old faded photos where no one - even the owner - can identify who is actually in the picture. I guess in our day and age we could write extensive meta data about where and when a picture was taken and who is in…

I know my carefully curated collections of stuff will be worth pretty much zero to anyone a I leave them to. They may be interested in the pictures. But that would be about it. My massive cd/dvd/bluray/games/books/coins collection that I have amassed and carefully cataloged. At best it will end up at goodwill/ebay or at worst in the trash.
Post reply on HN