For anyone else thinking this might sound familiar or that they’ve been making articles about it shutting down every few years now, the power loss from the radioactive source is *very* gradual and they have been stretching out what power they have available by slowly shutting down individual systems to still keep using whatever they’re able to.
Several of the other instruments are still operational and will continue to collect data for now.
aging_geek on
wonder if the probe has helped in further understanding of radioactive decay over time as the power output drops.
hjadams123 on
Anyone else find it amazing that they are able to shut down anything on this thing from earth?
MoreGaghPlease on
Would it be so hard for these articles to call it V’ger?
Kriller_Lobot80 on
Pump up the volume. Pump up the volume. Pump up the volume
tigerperfume on
Using current tech, assuming we could get a similar probe built and launched within 1 year (I know that’s unrealistic, but let’s pretend), would our current tech allow us to catch up to Voyager 2? I know we got really lucky with the numerous gravitational boosts along its path, but I’m wondering how long it could take using current tech to try and catch up (if that’s even possible)
6 Comments
For anyone else thinking this might sound familiar or that they’ve been making articles about it shutting down every few years now, the power loss from the radioactive source is *very* gradual and they have been stretching out what power they have available by slowly shutting down individual systems to still keep using whatever they’re able to.
You can see the status of individual systems for each Voyager probe on NASA’s website if you scroll down a bit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/where-are-they-now/
Several of the other instruments are still operational and will continue to collect data for now.
wonder if the probe has helped in further understanding of radioactive decay over time as the power output drops.
Anyone else find it amazing that they are able to shut down anything on this thing from earth?
Would it be so hard for these articles to call it V’ger?
Pump up the volume. Pump up the volume. Pump up the volume
Using current tech, assuming we could get a similar probe built and launched within 1 year (I know that’s unrealistic, but let’s pretend), would our current tech allow us to catch up to Voyager 2? I know we got really lucky with the numerous gravitational boosts along its path, but I’m wondering how long it could take using current tech to try and catch up (if that’s even possible)