Post #4288651

2026-07-31 19:24 UTC

In April, NASA turned off one of the few remaining functional instruments. They have been slowly disabling them since 1998, because of limited power/use at various ranges. Think about that for a moment… It launched almost 50 years ago, in 1977. And we are STILL able to communicate with it. Expectedly until 2036. And this with our technology knowledge at the time. Unless it collides with something or is retrieved, it will reach the Oort Cloud in about 300 years. It will take about 30k years to pass through it. All of this blows my mind. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager #Voyager #Space #NASA #Interstellar #Universe #Technology

Replies (6)

@patrick@social.seattle.wa.us 2026-07-31 20:55

@markwyner@mas.to When all our constructions turn to dust, and we are just an archeological planet, the Voyager spacecraft may be seen as out planet’s most amazing achievement. As in “how close they came”. Interplanetary archeologists will try to imagine the level of cooperation we must have reached, as primitive tool makers, to have advanced so far in so little time. Until they find the weapons of war still orbiting our dusty planet, and they discover why Earth is lifeless.

Open ##4297069
@Wolkensteine@mastodon.wolkenheim.eu 2026-07-31 19:29

@markwyner@mas.to Yeah it really shows that if humans don't rush a thing and put a lot of work into something it can be much more than we before thought it could be.

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@c0dec0dec0de@hachyderm.io 2026-07-31 19:53

@markwyner@mas.to permacomputing

Open ##4305740
@alpatron@mastodonczech.cz 2026-07-31 20:03

@markwyner@mas.to IIRC this fun fact from my fault-tolerant systems course, they built in a Reed–Solomon error-correction code encoder for a robust connection... the fun being at that time no decoder existed, assuming that in a few years, when Voyager would be far enough to really need the error correction, a decoder would have been developed. And the gamble paid off.

Open ##4305749
@riley@toot.cat 2026-07-31 20:17

@markwyner@mas.to If it collides with something, that something wil most likely be an Oort Cloud object.

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@operator@vis.social 2026-07-31 20:21

@markwyner@mas.to why newer sended a new better one?

Open ##4312356