[HN Gopher] Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth
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       Voyager 1 stops communicating with Earth
        
       Author : my12parsecs
       Score  : 71 points
       Date   : 2023-12-14 13:07 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.cnn.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.cnn.com)
        
       | 29athrowaway wrote:
       | > Voyager 1 is currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth
       | 
       | Voyager 1 is the farthest man-made object from Earth.
        
         | willcipriano wrote:
         | I wonder if we will ever pass Voyager 1. Might be the farthest
         | for a long time.
        
           | detourdog wrote:
           | I remember when the launching of voyager. I would rather be
           | getting bad data than no data.
        
           | SigmundA wrote:
           | I always like it in space simulation games when you can visit
           | them: https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Voyager_1
        
           | floxy wrote:
           | Hopefully in my lifetime we can do something like these
           | lightsails:
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQFqDKRAROI&t=883s
           | 
           | ...which do a swing by the sun to get up to 22 AU/year.
        
           | johndunne wrote:
           | I asked myself this same question when New Horizon sent
           | pictures of Pluto back. I was surprised to learn that NH will
           | never overtake Voyager because of the number of gravity
           | assists Voyager 1 achieved. The planners had to race to
           | achieve the 4 gravity assists in the 70's, the next time the
           | 4 giants line up in such a way isn't until 2145. Perhaps some
           | form of ion engine, one day, will help us overtake Voyager.
           | Or more sci-fi fusion/nuclear rockets. Who knows, but it's
           | interesting to ponder.
           | 
           | https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/voyager-1-solar-
           | syst...
        
         | deely3 wrote:
         | > farthest man-made object
         | 
         | that we know about and actively track
        
           | lagrange77 wrote:
           | wow!
        
           | zamadatix wrote:
           | Are there other candidates outside those criteria or is this
           | a "it's impossible to really know anything" response?
        
           | DrBazza wrote:
           | The manhole cover from Operation Plumbob?
           | 
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plumbbob
        
           | kzrdude wrote:
           | What other object could be further away? I'm curious
        
             | 1970-01-01 wrote:
             | In a nice chart for you:
             | 
             | https://www.heavens-above.com/SolarEscape.aspx
        
         | bee_rider wrote:
         | True, there are almost certainly alien spacecraft farther from
         | Earth than Voyager.
        
           | echelon wrote:
           | I hope so!
        
       | smitty1110 wrote:
       | A less alarmist and clickbait article can be found here:
       | https://www.popsci.com/science/voyager-computer-issue/
       | 
       | NASA press release here:
       | https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2023/12/12/engineers-working-...
       | 
       | TL;DR - Voyager is sending back bad data, they're working on it.
        
       | palemoonale wrote:
       | Thats so sad... Major Tom to Earth. I hope V1 keeps being a part
       | of life to come.
        
       | pjot wrote:
       | Voyager 1 is so far away that it takes 22.5 hours for commands
       | sent from Earth to reach the spacecraft. Additionally, the team
       | must wait 45 hours to receive a response.
       | 
       | I'm guessing "hotfix" commits don't exist in this domain
        
         | bee_rider wrote:
         | I guess it is nitpicking, but I hate the word choice they've
         | selected there. The "additionally" makes it look like the 22.5
         | and 45 hour problems are two different things, instead of the
         | natural result of a round trip.
        
           | huytersd wrote:
           | I don't think you should use the word "hate" here. Something
           | with a lesser degree like dislike or disagree would make your
           | comment feel less viscerally hyperbolic.
        
             | NoToP wrote:
             | I hold this comment in contempt
        
             | BobaFloutist wrote:
             | I don't think you should use the phrase "viscerally
             | hyperbolic", I think it overstates the degree to which
             | their comment communicates an excess of emotion. Instead,
             | consider saying "I don't hate it, but I don't love it" to
             | express agreement with the sentiment, but disagreement with
             | the degree.
        
         | mholt wrote:
         | The use of "additionally" is weird here. A full roundtrip is 45
         | hours. It doesn't take 22.5 + 45 hours to receive a response.
         | 45 = 22.5 + 22.5.
        
       | SN76477 wrote:
       | I would love to see a Voyager 1 simulator.
        
         | NoToP wrote:
         | A real time simulator?
        
       | malfist wrote:
       | This is an absolutely terrible headline. Voyager is communicating
       | with Earth, full stop. The data from it's scientific instruments
       | is coming back in a fixed, repeating pattern, meaning we aren't
       | getting anything meaningful from it, but it is absolutely still
       | communicating with Earth.
        
         | SkyPuncher wrote:
         | No, it's an accurate headline for the general population.
         | 
         | It's sending nothing useful.
        
           | mholt wrote:
           | The headline doesn't say _useful_ though. Just that it
           | stopped communicating, which is false.
        
           | h2odragon wrote:
           | "im still here" is useful.
           | 
           | if it had hit the wall and gone totally silent, that would be
           | a different thing entire.
        
           | disconcision wrote:
           | bad news everybody, grandmas dead
           | 
           | where by dead we mean that the entropy of her current
           | utterances is failing to move extant priors
        
         | bmitc wrote:
         | Communication means an exchange of information. Receiving a
         | signal does not.
        
           | mongol wrote:
           | We receive information that its radios are still working.
        
       | lordnacho wrote:
       | How is it possible to still be able to get a signal from a
       | spacecraft that's so far away? How can the antenna be directional
       | enough while still being pointed right at the Earth? How do we
       | remove the noise?
        
         | laweijfmvo wrote:
         | Aliens found it 20 years ago and have been spoofing the data to
         | keep us in the dark?
        
         | munificent wrote:
         | Voyager 1 has a large 12-foot diameter directional radio
         | antenna that it keeps pointed at Earth. If you look at photos
         | of Voyager, the antenna (the big dish) basically _is_ most of
         | what you see: it 's bigger than everything else on craft.
         | 
         | There are radio antennas across the Earth listening to its very
         | weak signal.
         | 
         | More details:
         | https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/24338/how-to-calcu...
        
       | squarefoot wrote:
       | Alternate link if you get a "browser blocked" error message.
       | https://archive.is/YnzAR
        
       | ssl232 wrote:
       | Obligatory: https://what-if.xkcd.com/38/
        
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       (page generated 2023-12-14 23:00 UTC)