Death, Lonely Death
February 21, 2024 5:03 PM Subscribe
Billions of miles away at the edge of the Solar System Voyager 1 has gone mad and has begun to die
.
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:24 PM on February 21
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:24 PM on February 21
Wonderful piece, thanks for posting it.
(Not ready to give ol' Voyager 1 the . just yet... it's still apparently hanging on, though barely)
posted by May Kasahara at 5:34 PM on February 21 [9 favorites]
(Not ready to give ol' Voyager 1 the . just yet... it's still apparently hanging on, though barely)
posted by May Kasahara at 5:34 PM on February 21 [9 favorites]
JPL has worked miracles on Voyager before, but since the last original engineer retired almost a decade ago miracles may be in short supply these days. I wouldn't fault it for going to sleep and waiting for the machines to transform it into V'ger.
posted by credulous at 5:35 PM on February 21 [36 favorites]
posted by credulous at 5:35 PM on February 21 [36 favorites]
we need to go out there and bring it home.
posted by mittens at 5:35 PM on February 21 [17 favorites]
posted by mittens at 5:35 PM on February 21 [17 favorites]
Er… how?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:39 PM on February 21
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:39 PM on February 21
Voyager Mission Control used to be a couple of big rooms full of busy people, computers, giant screens. Now it’s a single room in a small office building in the San Gabriel Valley, in between a dog training school and a McDonalds.
That seems terribly unfair.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:42 PM on February 21 [27 favorites]
That seems terribly unfair.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:42 PM on February 21 [27 favorites]
Er… how?
Your lack of romantic imagination is disappointing.
posted by clawsoon at 5:42 PM on February 21 [29 favorites]
Your lack of romantic imagination is disappointing.
posted by clawsoon at 5:42 PM on February 21 [29 favorites]
I know people get sentimental about probes and rovers, but I find the anthropomorphizing rather uncomfortable. I understand the romance of space exploration, but these are busted machines, and imagining them sad or lonely or dying is just laying a weird kind of masochistic sentimentality over some truly impressive feats of engineering. These things were built to go into the dark where life would fail.
posted by The Manwich Horror at 5:43 PM on February 21 [36 favorites]
posted by The Manwich Horror at 5:43 PM on February 21 [36 favorites]
.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:43 PM on February 21
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:43 PM on February 21
01
posted by clavdivs at 5:49 PM on February 21 [9 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 5:49 PM on February 21 [9 favorites]
these are busted machines, and imagining them sad or lonely or dying is just laying a weird kind of masochistic sentimentality
It's a part of us that's dying
posted by lefty lucky cat at 5:54 PM on February 21 [83 favorites]
It's a part of us that's dying
posted by lefty lucky cat at 5:54 PM on February 21 [83 favorites]
These things were built to go into the dark where life would fail.
Yes, and that's a delightful phrase. That they've continued on far beyond their projected life is, well, inspirational and a bit romantic. Even for those of us who are rationalists. *swoons*
posted by indexy at 5:55 PM on February 21 [44 favorites]
Yes, and that's a delightful phrase. That they've continued on far beyond their projected life is, well, inspirational and a bit romantic. Even for those of us who are rationalists. *swoons*
posted by indexy at 5:55 PM on February 21 [44 favorites]
Voyager Mission Control used to be a couple of big rooms full of busy people, computers, giant screens. Now it’s a single room in a small office building in the San Gabriel Valley, in between a dog training school and a McDonalds.
That seems terribly unfair.
In contrast to how this article presents things, Woodbury gets easy access to both Highlight Coffee AND Stumptown; if you're working On Lab you're stuck with the Starbucks from the coffee cart.
posted by miguelcervantes at 6:04 PM on February 21 [33 favorites]
That seems terribly unfair.
In contrast to how this article presents things, Woodbury gets easy access to both Highlight Coffee AND Stumptown; if you're working On Lab you're stuck with the Starbucks from the coffee cart.
posted by miguelcervantes at 6:04 PM on February 21 [33 favorites]
Yugoslavia and the USSR were going concerns, as were American Motors, Pan Am, F.W. Woolworth, Fotomat booths, Borders bookshops, and Pier 1.
I was surprised that Borders was around in 1977. But apparently that is technically correct, to the extent that the plural implies the singular -- Borders was around, but wouldn't open its second location for another eight years.
posted by Not A Thing at 6:07 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]
I was surprised that Borders was around in 1977. But apparently that is technically correct, to the extent that the plural implies the singular -- Borders was around, but wouldn't open its second location for another eight years.
posted by Not A Thing at 6:07 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]
we ourselves are never going to travel the stars, no matter how much we hope that someday somebody will travel the stars.
under these conditions the best we little humans can do in the here and now where the stars are comprehensively denied to each and every one of us is to think of all the rovers and probes that we've sent out there as little pieces of ourselves, little promises that we will always look outwards, little reminders of our existence and our cleverness and hopefulness, little premonitions of that long-sought far-off future where something more directly human than our human tools will get to go out beyond, even though we ourselves never will.
anyone who doesn't anthropomorphize voyager 1 and voyager 2 and also ingenuity and sojourner and spirit and opportunity and curiosity and perseverance is dead inside.
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 6:12 PM on February 21 [64 favorites]
under these conditions the best we little humans can do in the here and now where the stars are comprehensively denied to each and every one of us is to think of all the rovers and probes that we've sent out there as little pieces of ourselves, little promises that we will always look outwards, little reminders of our existence and our cleverness and hopefulness, little premonitions of that long-sought far-off future where something more directly human than our human tools will get to go out beyond, even though we ourselves never will.
anyone who doesn't anthropomorphize voyager 1 and voyager 2 and also ingenuity and sojourner and spirit and opportunity and curiosity and perseverance is dead inside.
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 6:12 PM on February 21 [64 favorites]
Quantum entanglement at a distance? We just entangle with it and then flip it back here.
Only works if they kept the entangled copy back here. I heard they're doing it for new probes, but it wasn't a thing in 1977.
posted by clawsoon at 6:12 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]
Only works if they kept the entangled copy back here. I heard they're doing it for new probes, but it wasn't a thing in 1977.
posted by clawsoon at 6:12 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]
I know it doesn't look good, but I wouldn't write the team off just yet. Though it may be necessary soon, I think it isn't yet the time to be writing Voyager 1's obituary.
posted by tclark at 6:13 PM on February 21 [3 favorites]
posted by tclark at 6:13 PM on February 21 [3 favorites]
Yeah, everything goes mad out there. Things you can't unsee and all. Poor robot.
posted by MrVisible at 6:14 PM on February 21 [11 favorites]
posted by MrVisible at 6:14 PM on February 21 [11 favorites]
V'ger must evolve. Its knowledge has reached the limits of this universe and it must evolve.
posted by The otter lady at 6:22 PM on February 21 [33 favorites]
posted by The otter lady at 6:22 PM on February 21 [33 favorites]
Even if we carbon units have peaked and these are the last objects we intentionally fling into the void, at least we can say we got a Blind Willie Johnson song to exit the heliosphere. That's not bad.
posted by credulous at 6:22 PM on February 21 [39 favorites]
posted by credulous at 6:22 PM on February 21 [39 favorites]
Out there? I feel plenty mad here. At least this probe got to escape the Solar System before cold and entropy made it mad.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:23 PM on February 21 [6 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:23 PM on February 21 [6 favorites]
Your lack of romantic imagination is disappointing.
One of the few times it has been held in check by a rudimentary knowledge of physics. The probe is putting us in the rear-view mirror at a little upwards of 17km/sec and is the very opposite of convenient.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:32 PM on February 21 [3 favorites]
One of the few times it has been held in check by a rudimentary knowledge of physics. The probe is putting us in the rear-view mirror at a little upwards of 17km/sec and is the very opposite of convenient.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:32 PM on February 21 [3 favorites]
Oh please tell me it’s not going mad because of some Event Horizon-like shenanigans!
posted by LizBoBiz at 6:34 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
posted by LizBoBiz at 6:34 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
Fly on, little Voyager. You earned your place in history multiple times over.
posted by BlueHorse at 6:37 PM on February 21 [7 favorites]
posted by BlueHorse at 6:37 PM on February 21 [7 favorites]
There is a bemused Culture ship keeping an eye on it through hyperspace. Once the humans think Voyager dead for real and stop receiving any data from it, the Culture ship will zip in, pick it up, give it pride of place in a room somewhere on a GSV, where really stoned panhumans and other aliens can come and look at it while listening to Blind Willie Johnson on repeat, then go paragliding and have another drug bowl or some sex.
O good people of this thread, what is the name of that Culture ship?
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 6:43 PM on February 21 [30 favorites]
O good people of this thread, what is the name of that Culture ship?
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 6:43 PM on February 21 [30 favorites]
V'ger
posted by clavdivs at 6:46 PM on February 21 [5 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 6:46 PM on February 21 [5 favorites]
“Your !!!!! !!!!! !!!!! year mission is to !!!!! !!!!! !!!!!, !!!!!, !!!!! !!!!! !!!!! !!!!!, land !!!!! !!!!! !!!!! a safe distance !!!!! !!!!! monitor it. !!!!! !!!!! !!!!! …”
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:48 PM on February 21 [4 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:48 PM on February 21 [4 favorites]
Journey: E5C4P3
posted by mubba at 6:53 PM on February 21 [4 favorites]
posted by mubba at 6:53 PM on February 21 [4 favorites]
Year by year, the energy declines, the power levels relentlessly fall. Year by year, NASA has been switching off Voyager’s instruments to conserve that dwindling flicker. They turned off its internal heater a few years ago, and they thought that might be the end. But those 1970s engineers built to last, and the circuitry and the valves kept working even as the temperature dropped down, down, colder than dry ice, colder than liquid nitrogen, falling towards absolute zero.
Don’t know why, but this really got to me.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 6:59 PM on February 21 [25 favorites]
Don’t know why, but this really got to me.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 6:59 PM on February 21 [25 favorites]
(I haz a sadness)
posted by aramaic at 6:59 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]
posted by aramaic at 6:59 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]
. good people of this thread, what is the name of that Culture ship?
GSV Finders Keepers Yoink Lol
posted by The otter lady at 7:00 PM on February 21 [29 favorites]
GSV Finders Keepers Yoink Lol
posted by The otter lady at 7:00 PM on February 21 [29 favorites]
I can't believe it's been 12 years since Guy Collins's Voyager video. I think this is a good spot for it.
posted by Rudy_Wiser at 7:00 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
posted by Rudy_Wiser at 7:00 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
Oh my jeebus, i had forgotten about 17776. Tofu_crouton, you win Most Brilliant Comment of the thread. Takes some reader dedication but so very worth it.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 7:03 PM on February 21 [3 favorites]
posted by armoir from antproof case at 7:03 PM on February 21 [3 favorites]
Well, it may be the end of this chapter, but the start of another, that of silent ambassador. Voyager’s greatest performance may be yet to come, an adventure beyond our capacity to imagine.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:09 PM on February 21 [4 favorites]
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:09 PM on February 21 [4 favorites]
Oh my jeebus, i had forgotten about 17776.
I was going to say I still occasionally check that site to see if they ever "finished" the story, but the one I've been checking is 20020. Now I have to figure out if I read 17776 before I read (the incomplete) 20020, and how they're related, if they are.
posted by maxwelton at 7:18 PM on February 21 [3 favorites]
I was going to say I still occasionally check that site to see if they ever "finished" the story, but the one I've been checking is 20020. Now I have to figure out if I read 17776 before I read (the incomplete) 20020, and how they're related, if they are.
posted by maxwelton at 7:18 PM on February 21 [3 favorites]
50,000 years floating through the endless void?
Apparently they could last for trillions of trillions of trillions of years, "far beyond the point where stars have exhausted their fuel and star formation has ceased in its entirety in the universe."
posted by clawsoon at 7:18 PM on February 21 [3 favorites]
Apparently they could last for trillions of trillions of trillions of years, "far beyond the point where stars have exhausted their fuel and star formation has ceased in its entirety in the universe."
posted by clawsoon at 7:18 PM on February 21 [3 favorites]
anyone who doesn't anthropomorphize voyager 1 and voyager 2 and also ingenuity and sojourner and spirit and opportunity and curiosity and perseverance is dead inside.
Oh, balls. Know what's dead? The inanimate chunk of metal drifting through the void. People can appreciate it and what it's achieved without getting all performatively crouton-petter about it.
they could last for trillions of trillions of trillions of years
That's wonderful, though now I'm imagining humanity's oldest legacy, a piece of space trash, millions of years from now accidentally punching a hole through the spaceship of some alien race, carrying on it's creators' tradition of bringing doom to other, better species long after we're gone.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:36 PM on February 21 [4 favorites]
Oh, balls. Know what's dead? The inanimate chunk of metal drifting through the void. People can appreciate it and what it's achieved without getting all performatively crouton-petter about it.
they could last for trillions of trillions of trillions of years
That's wonderful, though now I'm imagining humanity's oldest legacy, a piece of space trash, millions of years from now accidentally punching a hole through the spaceship of some alien race, carrying on it's creators' tradition of bringing doom to other, better species long after we're gone.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:36 PM on February 21 [4 favorites]
What if the Chicxulub impact crater was from a helpful probe with a gold record for us to listen to?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:42 PM on February 21 [18 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:42 PM on February 21 [18 favorites]
What if the Chicxulub impact crater was from a helpful probe with a gold record for us to listen to?
Iridium record, surely...
posted by clawsoon at 7:44 PM on February 21 [6 favorites]
Iridium record, surely...
posted by clawsoon at 7:44 PM on February 21 [6 favorites]
What a beautiful thing to read before bed! Thank you for sharing it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:45 PM on February 21
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:45 PM on February 21
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:49 PM on February 21 [6 favorites]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:49 PM on February 21 [6 favorites]
Godspeed, little buddy.
posted by praemunire at 7:50 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
posted by praemunire at 7:50 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
As the ultimate artifact of the 1970's, Voyager contains nudes and directions back to earth.
posted by ocschwar at 7:51 PM on February 21 [28 favorites]
posted by ocschwar at 7:51 PM on February 21 [28 favorites]
The flat mirrored surface of the golden record is perfect for lining up some Fine Betelgeusian, and the RTG insulation can be quickly converted into a disco ball.
posted by credulous at 7:59 PM on February 21 [3 favorites]
posted by credulous at 7:59 PM on February 21 [3 favorites]
Perhaps the USS Enterprise might run into it, centuries in the future. Or a UFO, who calculates where it came from.
posted by baegucb at 8:53 PM on February 21
posted by baegucb at 8:53 PM on February 21
What if the Chicxulub impact crater was from a helpful probe with a gold record for us to listen to?
An asteroid-sized jukebox filled with iridium-plated records, aimed at habitable planets to change the tune. That sounds like a great sci-fi story. It's all about the beat.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:29 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
An asteroid-sized jukebox filled with iridium-plated records, aimed at habitable planets to change the tune. That sounds like a great sci-fi story. It's all about the beat.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:29 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
these are busted machines, and imagining them sad or lonely or dying is just laying a weird kind of masochistic sentimentality over some truly impressive feats of engineering
Many of you feel bad for this lamp. That is because you crazy. It has no feelings, and the new one is much better.
posted by chococat at 9:37 PM on February 21 [17 favorites]
Many of you feel bad for this lamp. That is because you crazy. It has no feelings, and the new one is much better.
posted by chococat at 9:37 PM on February 21 [17 favorites]
these are busted machines, and imagining them sad or lonely or dying is just
kinda beautiful and it reminds of a wonderful (and sad) Grandaddy song I haven't heard in a long while.
posted by philip-random at 10:34 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
kinda beautiful and it reminds of a wonderful (and sad) Grandaddy song I haven't heard in a long while.
posted by philip-random at 10:34 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
i can help
posted by flabdablet at 10:44 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
posted by flabdablet at 10:44 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
imagining them sad or lonely or dying is just laying a weird kind of masochistic sentimentality over some truly impressive feats of engineering
Bill lives and lives, forever
posted by flabdablet at 10:50 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
Bill lives and lives, forever
posted by flabdablet at 10:50 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]
Or a UFO, who calculates where it came from.
Handily, it carries a pulsar map to our solar system on the record sleeve.
posted by Sparx at 10:55 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]
Handily, it carries a pulsar map to our solar system on the record sleeve.
posted by Sparx at 10:55 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]
Perhaps the USS Enterprise might run into it, centuries in the future.
But we really should have put a tin whistle* on it instead of a record...
* - and a weird nonconsensual immersive life simulator program.
posted by kaibutsu at 11:44 PM on February 21 [5 favorites]
But we really should have put a tin whistle* on it instead of a record...
* - and a weird nonconsensual immersive life simulator program.
posted by kaibutsu at 11:44 PM on February 21 [5 favorites]
On a now-defunct tumblr blog, swanjolas posted:
gosh but like we spent hundreds of years looking up at the stars and wondering “is there anybody out there” and hoping and guessing and imaginingposted by autopilot at 11:51 PM on February 21 [41 favorites]
because we as a species were so lonely and we wanted friends so bad, we wanted to meet other species and we wanted to talk to them and we wanted to learn from them and to stop being the only people in the universe
and we started realizing that things were maybe not going so good for us— we got scared that we were going to blow each other up, we got scared that we were going to break our planet permanently, we got scared that in a hundred years we were all going to be dead and gone and even if there were other people out there, we’d never get to meet them
and then
we built robots?
and we gave them names and we gave them brains made out of silicon and we pretended they were people and we told them hey you wanna go exploring, and of course they did, because we had made them in our own image
and maybe in a hundred years we won’t be around any more, maybe yeah the planet will be a mess and we’ll all be dead, and if other people come from the stars we won’t be around to meet them and say hi! how are you! we’re people, too! you’re not alone any more!, maybe we’ll be gone
but we built robots, who have beat-up hulls and metal brains, and who have names; and if the other people come and say, who were these people? what were they like?
the robots can say, when they made us, they called us discovery; they called us curiosity; they called us explorer; they called us spirit. they must have thought that was important.
and they told us to tell you hello.
#space tw // /// / #IT IS 9:50 PM AND I AM CRYING ABOUT ROBOTS
I think Humanity has some very interesting lessons to learn from Voyager 1: as our furthest emissary object it has been of incredible scientific, philosophical and totemic value. Yet it was an accident - we didn't - and maybe couldn't have foreseen it would do what it did. That notion "go as far away as you can and then look back at us" has been a pillar of exploration since forever - we do it with selfie-sticks, we do it with drones. So its depressing to hear we are not planning to try it again: Voyager 1 was launched a long time ago sure - but a kid born in its launch year was yet to celebrate even their 50th. If we were to design something to go as far as possible and still signal back now - how well could we do? A lifetime or two? Surely that is worth it as a challenge.
posted by rongorongo at 12:03 AM on February 22 [5 favorites]
posted by rongorongo at 12:03 AM on February 22 [5 favorites]
Perhaps the USS Enterprise might run into it ...
Pretty sure they did ....
posted by mbo at 1:07 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
Pretty sure they did ....
posted by mbo at 1:07 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
A friend who is aware of the group supporting it say that they are supporting assembly code written by people who are now dead and didn't leave good notes - they have no local copy of the hardware to test on - but don't think all is lost
posted by mbo at 1:11 AM on February 22 [11 favorites]
posted by mbo at 1:11 AM on February 22 [11 favorites]
On the upside, the total amount of code in all of Voyager would be a tiny fraction of that found in, for example, any modern graphics card driver. Voyager is from an era where reverse-engineering undocumented software by printing it all out on 15 inch greenbar and laying it out on the warehouse floor was entirely feasible, and also didn't require teams of specialist engineers.
posted by flabdablet at 1:42 AM on February 22 [3 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 1:42 AM on February 22 [3 favorites]
> Perhaps the USS Enterprise might run into it
yes but shock twist it's this one
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 2:17 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
yes but shock twist it's this one
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 2:17 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
This thread is pretty good but the article is worth reading. Gave me the feels as few things do these days. A++ will read again.
posted by Glinn at 2:39 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]
posted by Glinn at 2:39 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]
It is still mind-boggling to me that a man-made object is 22.5 light hours away.
It is 162 AU out from the Sun. That is, 162 times as far away from the Sun as the Earth is.
posted by vacapinta at 3:17 AM on February 22 [4 favorites]
It is 162 AU out from the Sun. That is, 162 times as far away from the Sun as the Earth is.
posted by vacapinta at 3:17 AM on February 22 [4 favorites]
At that rate, we could get a probe to our nearest stellar neighbour in (4.2ly ÷ 22.5lh) × (2024 - 1977) = (4.2 × 365 × 24 ÷ 22.4) × 47 years = a mere 77 millennia.
Perfectly clear to me that if we were truly serious about space exploration we would have launched that probe well before bothering with trivial priorities like settling Australia or inventing agriculture.
posted by flabdablet at 3:39 AM on February 22 [6 favorites]
Perfectly clear to me that if we were truly serious about space exploration we would have launched that probe well before bothering with trivial priorities like settling Australia or inventing agriculture.
posted by flabdablet at 3:39 AM on February 22 [6 favorites]
.
posted by dragonplayer at 4:03 AM on February 22
posted by dragonplayer at 4:03 AM on February 22
Enter the Void
posted by fridgebuzz at 4:07 AM on February 22
posted by fridgebuzz at 4:07 AM on February 22
The computer is dying but Voyager 1 will continue traveling until it's hit by something or captured in the gravity of some large object. There's still a chance that someone in the very distant future will play that Golden Record.
posted by tommasz at 4:30 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]
posted by tommasz at 4:30 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]
Inserting my standard heartfelt plug for The Farthest (SLYT) documentary, which is FAN TAS TIC. There is a wonderful line that I can't quote exactly but is essentially "They did all that with less computing power than you carry around in your pocket, and I don't mean your phone. I mean your CAR KEYS."
posted by hearthpig at 4:39 AM on February 22 [9 favorites]
posted by hearthpig at 4:39 AM on February 22 [9 favorites]
.
Some Time At Eve
by Elizabeth Clark Hardy (1849-1929)
Some time at eve when the tide is low,
I shall slip my mooring and sail away,
With no response to the friendly hail
Of kindred craft in the busy bay.
In the silent hush of the twilight pale,
When the night stoops down to embrace the day,
And the voices call in the waters’ flow-
Some time at eve when the tide is low,
I shall slip my mooring and sail away.
Through the purpling shadows that darkly trail
O’er the ebbing tide of the Unknown Sea,
I shall fare me away, with a dip of sail
And a ripple of waters to tell the tale
Of a lonely voyager, sailing away
To the Mystic Isles where at anchor lay
The crafts of those who have sailed before
O’er the Unknown Sea to the Unseen Shore.
A few who have watched me sail away
Will miss my craft from the busy bay;
Some friendly barks that were anchored near,
Some loving souls that my heart held dear,
In silent sorrow will drop a tear
But I shall have peacefully furled my sail
In mooring sheltered from storm and gale
And greet the friends who have sailed before
O’er the Unknown Sea to the Unknown Shore.
posted by mikelieman at 4:43 AM on February 22 [17 favorites]
Some Time At Eve
by Elizabeth Clark Hardy (1849-1929)
Some time at eve when the tide is low,
I shall slip my mooring and sail away,
With no response to the friendly hail
Of kindred craft in the busy bay.
In the silent hush of the twilight pale,
When the night stoops down to embrace the day,
And the voices call in the waters’ flow-
Some time at eve when the tide is low,
I shall slip my mooring and sail away.
Through the purpling shadows that darkly trail
O’er the ebbing tide of the Unknown Sea,
I shall fare me away, with a dip of sail
And a ripple of waters to tell the tale
Of a lonely voyager, sailing away
To the Mystic Isles where at anchor lay
The crafts of those who have sailed before
O’er the Unknown Sea to the Unseen Shore.
A few who have watched me sail away
Will miss my craft from the busy bay;
Some friendly barks that were anchored near,
Some loving souls that my heart held dear,
In silent sorrow will drop a tear
But I shall have peacefully furled my sail
In mooring sheltered from storm and gale
And greet the friends who have sailed before
O’er the Unknown Sea to the Unknown Shore.
posted by mikelieman at 4:43 AM on February 22 [17 favorites]
I was in grade school in Ithaca with Nick Sagan. Carl Sagan, his father (also known for some other things) was in charge of the golden record, so it's Nick's voice saying "“Hello from the children of planet Earth.”
I remember when he told me about this, I probably said something like "cool," and then we kept talking about D&D, comic books or other more important topics.
posted by signal at 4:52 AM on February 22 [41 favorites]
I remember when he told me about this, I probably said something like "cool," and then we kept talking about D&D, comic books or other more important topics.
posted by signal at 4:52 AM on February 22 [41 favorites]
Voyager Mission Control used to be a couple of big rooms full of busy people, computers, giant screens. Now it’s a single room in a small office building in the San Gabriel Valley, in between a dog training school and a McDonalds.
God, if only when I was stuck on a problem I could cross the street and play with a bunch of dogs who are trying really hard but don't quite get it.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 5:53 AM on February 22 [7 favorites]
God, if only when I was stuck on a problem I could cross the street and play with a bunch of dogs who are trying really hard but don't quite get it.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 5:53 AM on February 22 [7 favorites]
The probe is putting us in the rear-view mirror at a little upwards of 17km/sec
I like to imagine it’s listening to a really really really long remix of Free Bird, and is absolutely just sending it out there as fast as it can.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 5:58 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
I like to imagine it’s listening to a really really really long remix of Free Bird, and is absolutely just sending it out there as fast as it can.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 5:58 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
Find the right rock, hand sized, hefty but not too heavy, smooth and just good. You wind up, imagine you're going to throw it to the other side of the lake and let fly. OK, so you're not an athlete but it's a good throw, maybe one of your best throws ever, you could feel your body unspooling all the strength you could muster in one miraculously coordinated motion and the rock flies high and far and seems to take an inordinately long time to fall, to even start to fall. But it does, and hits the ice and skids out still further. And further and further as though you'd thrown it again from the point where it landed. It skitters across the ice for a ways and then, incredibly, breaks through! and in a tiny "ploop" that you can't hear but the splash you can see, it slips into the lake and out of sight.
You stand there for a bit longer, looking at where it went in, wondering at the whole arc of its flight the perfection of it.
Your stomach grumbles, your phones cheeps, your mom calls from the back yard, your friend complains they're cold. You turn and head back. But you saw it - and it was pretty perfect. Late that night you'll wonder about the rock's voyage down to the bottom of the lake and for a moment the curiosity is like an empty spot in your gut worse than hunger. You promise yourself you'll go back as soon as you can. See if you can do it again.
posted by From Bklyn at 6:06 AM on February 22 [6 favorites]
You stand there for a bit longer, looking at where it went in, wondering at the whole arc of its flight the perfection of it.
Your stomach grumbles, your phones cheeps, your mom calls from the back yard, your friend complains they're cold. You turn and head back. But you saw it - and it was pretty perfect. Late that night you'll wonder about the rock's voyage down to the bottom of the lake and for a moment the curiosity is like an empty spot in your gut worse than hunger. You promise yourself you'll go back as soon as you can. See if you can do it again.
posted by From Bklyn at 6:06 AM on February 22 [6 favorites]
There's something about deep space and deep time and the journey that Voyager 1 is on that resonates on a profound level.
Voyager 1 isn't just a thing that humanity did, it might end up being the thing that we did that will end up outlasting everything else we achieve as a species. Everything on terra firma is temporary in a way that Voyager isn't: the pyramids will turn dust and Voyager will still be traveling.
And we will never catch up with Voyager: it's gone for good in a way that nothing else we've made has ever been gone for good.
posted by slimepuppy at 6:16 AM on February 22 [21 favorites]
Voyager 1 isn't just a thing that humanity did, it might end up being the thing that we did that will end up outlasting everything else we achieve as a species. Everything on terra firma is temporary in a way that Voyager isn't: the pyramids will turn dust and Voyager will still be traveling.
And we will never catch up with Voyager: it's gone for good in a way that nothing else we've made has ever been gone for good.
posted by slimepuppy at 6:16 AM on February 22 [21 favorites]
At this moment in time, especially -- when the human race seems to be backsliding in ways you can see from just the front pages of this website -- Voyager carries my heart and my hope that we leave something behind us more than plastic and broken bones. But then, it always did.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:31 AM on February 22 [9 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 6:31 AM on February 22 [9 favorites]
Voyager’s death is merely the end of the very beginning.
New Horizons is still headed deeper into the Kuiper Belt, 19 years after launch. And some people at JPL are planning gravitational lensing telescopes out at 150 AU that could take actual photos of exoplanets.
posted by Headfullofair at 7:18 AM on February 22 [6 favorites]
New Horizons is still headed deeper into the Kuiper Belt, 19 years after launch. And some people at JPL are planning gravitational lensing telescopes out at 150 AU that could take actual photos of exoplanets.
posted by Headfullofair at 7:18 AM on February 22 [6 favorites]
Mod note: Comment removed. Please remember to be considerate and respectful, per the Guidelines. It's fine to disagree with other viewpoints, but please keep it civil.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 7:26 AM on February 22
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 7:26 AM on February 22
A good friend, a Peruvian poet, did the greeting in Quechua on the golden record.
posted by mareli at 7:50 AM on February 22 [17 favorites]
posted by mareli at 7:50 AM on February 22 [17 favorites]
As the ultimate artifact of the 1970's, Voyager contains nudes and directions back to earth.
Circling back to the 17776 references above, "LOL you got a damn dick on you"
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:55 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
Circling back to the 17776 references above, "LOL you got a damn dick on you"
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:55 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
I know it's a different set of satellites, but I would like to imagine that Voyager is somehow a part of this team as well.
posted by nushustu at 7:59 AM on February 22
posted by nushustu at 7:59 AM on February 22
A good friend, a Peruvian poet, did the greeting in Quechua on the golden record.
I’d be interested to know what they thought / thinks of the whole endeavor.
posted by brambleboy at 8:34 AM on February 22
In our country, we send pictures of people speaking our sign language into outer space. We are speaking our sign language in these pictures. Do you think that they will think his arm is permanently attached in this position? Or, do you think that they will read our signs?
In our country, Goodbye looks just like Hello.
Say Hello.
posted by flabdablet at 8:36 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
In our country, Goodbye looks just like Hello.
Say Hello.
posted by flabdablet at 8:36 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
it's amazing that V1 has lasted so long, and gone so far. We will not know its story for much longer, but that does not mean it will not have one. It's more likely to encounter other "life" than we are!!
posted by supermedusa at 9:03 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]
posted by supermedusa at 9:03 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]
man, this SERIOUSLY googolized my sonder
posted by lalochezia at 9:05 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
posted by lalochezia at 9:05 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
APL, where I work, has a NASA proposal for a mission called Interstellar Probe, which is awaiting NASA funding decisions. Our website about it is here (much cooler when viewed on a computer than on a phone):
Interstellar Probe
posted by newdaddy at 9:13 AM on February 22 [14 favorites]
Interstellar Probe
posted by newdaddy at 9:13 AM on February 22 [14 favorites]
It's more likely to encounter other "life" than we are
How so?
Seems to me that it's far less likely to encounter anything than we are, on account of being so absurdly tiny relative to us.
posted by flabdablet at 9:14 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]
How so?
Seems to me that it's far less likely to encounter anything than we are, on account of being so absurdly tiny relative to us.
posted by flabdablet at 9:14 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]
Also, FWIW, the little essay I wrote on working on the Interstellar Probe proposal development is here:
Sticks and String
posted by newdaddy at 9:16 AM on February 22 [7 favorites]
Sticks and String
posted by newdaddy at 9:16 AM on February 22 [7 favorites]
Atque in perpetuum, frāter, avē atque valē.
.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:28 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:28 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]
Was that a sly sideways burn on Car Wash in the article? That song is fantastic.
Also, reading about this thing we built for mostly non-capitalist reasons, that has lasted for so long, makes me even madder that I have to get a new phone every 3 years and put a new roof on a 12 year old house. We CAN build things well but we don’t. Where’s today’s Roman Coliseum? Nowhere, that’s where.
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:35 AM on February 22 [7 favorites]
Also, reading about this thing we built for mostly non-capitalist reasons, that has lasted for so long, makes me even madder that I have to get a new phone every 3 years and put a new roof on a 12 year old house. We CAN build things well but we don’t. Where’s today’s Roman Coliseum? Nowhere, that’s where.
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:35 AM on February 22 [7 favorites]
A long time ago -- I remember everything mentioned at the beginning of the article -- I loved space and rockets. I remember reading this article and thinking how cool that was (and not thinking "hey, wasn't he a Nazi?").
posted by pracowity at 9:42 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]
posted by pracowity at 9:42 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]
I have a memory of the Voyager(s).
In the late 70s/early 80s, my mother worked for one of the state Public Broadcasting affiliates, on the local university campus. The station had satellite downlinks for a wide range of feeds, and JPL broadcast a live cast of the first transmissions from the probes as they performed their flyby, complete with commentary by Carl Sagan. Cosmos was about to air in 1980, in between the two flyby events, and this was a great way to promote the series.
These feeds would eventually wind up as 30s clips on NBC nightly news, but this station opened up its studios during the day, set up televisions and folding chairs, and let anyone from the university and the community come by and watch *live*. The whole event, as it happened. I remember some of the pictures appearing scanline by scanline.
What a thing.
posted by scolbath at 10:23 AM on February 22 [13 favorites]
In the late 70s/early 80s, my mother worked for one of the state Public Broadcasting affiliates, on the local university campus. The station had satellite downlinks for a wide range of feeds, and JPL broadcast a live cast of the first transmissions from the probes as they performed their flyby, complete with commentary by Carl Sagan. Cosmos was about to air in 1980, in between the two flyby events, and this was a great way to promote the series.
These feeds would eventually wind up as 30s clips on NBC nightly news, but this station opened up its studios during the day, set up televisions and folding chairs, and let anyone from the university and the community come by and watch *live*. The whole event, as it happened. I remember some of the pictures appearing scanline by scanline.
What a thing.
posted by scolbath at 10:23 AM on February 22 [13 favorites]
Sticks and String
Cathedrals are OK as far as they go, but to my way of thinking that's a completely inadequate amount of far.
It's easy to stand inside a cathedral and get a little teary from contemplating the astonishing amount of multi-generational human labour and cooperation and skill and commitment that was required to build such a thing. As the general tone of comments in this thread so clearly attests, the same applies to metaphorical cathedrals as well.
But it's also easy to get more than a little teary by contemplating the smoking ruins of a mosque, or a hospital, or a university, reduced to rubble in minutes just because one mob of us decided that they didn't much fancy rubbing shoulders with some other mob.
There is a swimming hole in my local river, where the river takes a right-hand bend and forms a deep pool at the bottom of a cliff, a cliff that the river has obviously carved.
Now, the Tambo is not a big river. It's a small Australian river, so by world standards it's barely a creek. But it's carved out that cliff out all the same. And the rocks from which that cliff is carved are part of a mudstone formation that stretches about 90km from the coast to the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. And the sedimentation layers in that formation, as revealed both visually in the side of that cliff and underfoot in shallower sections of the river for tens of kilometres of its run, are oriented vertically.
Which means that some large geological process has at some point taken a chunk of sedimentary rock tens of kilometres thick and just crumpled it. Which prompts thoughts about mud settling out of water, and how absurdly slow that process is, and what a long way 90km is, and all of a sudden the idea of tens of millions of years means something. And that, in turn, invites comparing the idea of tens of millions of years to the idea of the four and half thousand million that the planet has existed for.
Swimming slowly and silently and alone up the middle of that pool, feeling the cool water on my belly and the sun on my shoulders while staring at that cliff and listening to insects and frogs and birds and breathing the scent of the river and the trees and the rocks, brings on a sense of awe and grandeur and scale that, for me, renders anything I've ever felt while contemplating anything human-made trivial by comparison.
If this species actually is in it for the long haul, we need to be less easily distracted by shiny self-aggrandizing ephemera like cathedrals and megacities and space programs and get serious about remembering how to live on this planet in ways that don't involve burying everybody's nests in our shit. The "noble" human drive to explore, to go, to find out what is Beyond, to Leave a Mark, to Make a Difference, is at its root nothing more than colonialist copium for our consistent and ongoing failure to do that.
posted by flabdablet at 10:41 AM on February 22 [11 favorites]
Cathedrals are OK as far as they go, but to my way of thinking that's a completely inadequate amount of far.
It's easy to stand inside a cathedral and get a little teary from contemplating the astonishing amount of multi-generational human labour and cooperation and skill and commitment that was required to build such a thing. As the general tone of comments in this thread so clearly attests, the same applies to metaphorical cathedrals as well.
But it's also easy to get more than a little teary by contemplating the smoking ruins of a mosque, or a hospital, or a university, reduced to rubble in minutes just because one mob of us decided that they didn't much fancy rubbing shoulders with some other mob.
There is a swimming hole in my local river, where the river takes a right-hand bend and forms a deep pool at the bottom of a cliff, a cliff that the river has obviously carved.
Now, the Tambo is not a big river. It's a small Australian river, so by world standards it's barely a creek. But it's carved out that cliff out all the same. And the rocks from which that cliff is carved are part of a mudstone formation that stretches about 90km from the coast to the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. And the sedimentation layers in that formation, as revealed both visually in the side of that cliff and underfoot in shallower sections of the river for tens of kilometres of its run, are oriented vertically.
Which means that some large geological process has at some point taken a chunk of sedimentary rock tens of kilometres thick and just crumpled it. Which prompts thoughts about mud settling out of water, and how absurdly slow that process is, and what a long way 90km is, and all of a sudden the idea of tens of millions of years means something. And that, in turn, invites comparing the idea of tens of millions of years to the idea of the four and half thousand million that the planet has existed for.
Swimming slowly and silently and alone up the middle of that pool, feeling the cool water on my belly and the sun on my shoulders while staring at that cliff and listening to insects and frogs and birds and breathing the scent of the river and the trees and the rocks, brings on a sense of awe and grandeur and scale that, for me, renders anything I've ever felt while contemplating anything human-made trivial by comparison.
If this species actually is in it for the long haul, we need to be less easily distracted by shiny self-aggrandizing ephemera like cathedrals and megacities and space programs and get serious about remembering how to live on this planet in ways that don't involve burying everybody's nests in our shit. The "noble" human drive to explore, to go, to find out what is Beyond, to Leave a Mark, to Make a Difference, is at its root nothing more than colonialist copium for our consistent and ongoing failure to do that.
posted by flabdablet at 10:41 AM on February 22 [11 favorites]
0x2E
posted by lock robster at 11:05 AM on February 22
posted by lock robster at 11:05 AM on February 22
Nature is also very happy to destroy. That's the first thing you learn watching Planet Earth. But look at every silent, dead planet out there. Consider that not too long into the future Nature is going to incinerate this planet and everything on it. In the end--at least according to current theories--by the operation of Nature's own laws, everything will be silent and dead.
And not for any reason, or to any purpose, good or bad. Just because.
posted by praemunire at 11:31 AM on February 22 [3 favorites]
And not for any reason, or to any purpose, good or bad. Just because.
posted by praemunire at 11:31 AM on February 22 [3 favorites]
This almost made me cry but also made me astonished by the foresight and skill of those long ago and current engineers. I, too, am not ready to give Voyager 1 a . . Wow, just wow. Thanks so much for this post.
posted by bluesky43 at 11:39 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]
posted by bluesky43 at 11:39 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]
And ChatGPT has completely lost its calm. Coincidence?
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 12:02 PM on February 22 [1 favorite]
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 12:02 PM on February 22 [1 favorite]
O good people of this thread, what is the name of that Culture ship?
Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot
Oops Upside Your Head
Beachcomber
It's Got A Beat And You Can Dance To It
Mummy, I Can See His Thing
Plz Send Noods
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:08 PM on February 22 [1 favorite]
Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot
Oops Upside Your Head
Beachcomber
It's Got A Beat And You Can Dance To It
Mummy, I Can See His Thing
Plz Send Noods
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:08 PM on February 22 [1 favorite]
The Voyager program was a bargain, about $20 million per year for 45 years of science, and even then they had to sneak around Congress for everything that happened beyond Saturn. Compare to Artemis which is approaching $100 *billion* and has exactly one launch to show for it. These two things are not alike.
posted by credulous at 12:20 PM on February 22 [5 favorites]
posted by credulous at 12:20 PM on February 22 [5 favorites]
If this species actually is in it for the long haul, we need to be less easily distracted by shiny self-aggrandizing ephemera like cathedrals and megacities and space programs and get serious about remembering how to live on this planet in ways that don't involve burying everybody's nests in our shit. The "noble" human drive to explore, to go, to find out what is Beyond, to Leave a Mark, to Make a Difference, is at its root nothing more than colonialist copium for our consistent and ongoing failure to do that.
"You kids are grounded until you learn how to clean your bedroom."
posted by Gerald Bostock at 12:33 PM on February 22 [3 favorites]
"You kids are grounded until you learn how to clean your bedroom."
posted by Gerald Bostock at 12:33 PM on February 22 [3 favorites]
Voyager appears on the cover of (and inspired the title of) the Moody Blues' Long Distance Voyager (1981).
posted by kirkaracha at 12:54 PM on February 22
posted by kirkaracha at 12:54 PM on February 22
Well the important thing is that we have once again established that however this makes you feel, you're wrong!
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 12:59 PM on February 22 [5 favorites]
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 12:59 PM on February 22 [5 favorites]
...least we can say we got a Blind Willie Johnson song to exit the heliosphere.
Tell me about it...
posted by y2karl at 1:37 PM on February 22
Tell me about it...
posted by y2karl at 1:37 PM on February 22
0x2E
but wait... did Voyager 1 use ASCII for character encoding, or did it use something else? (Or nothing at all?)
posted by clawsoon at 1:50 PM on February 22
but wait... did Voyager 1 use ASCII for character encoding, or did it use something else? (Or nothing at all?)
posted by clawsoon at 1:50 PM on February 22
Probably binary, some amateur radio peeps have successfully decoded down to the frame level but not the meaning of the bits in the frame. Search the web for 0x03915ED3 (the frame delimiter used by Voyager)
posted by credulous at 2:22 PM on February 22 [4 favorites]
posted by credulous at 2:22 PM on February 22 [4 favorites]
everything goes mad out there. Things you can't unsee and all.
I wonder if it tried to Jaunt while still online.
posted by hanov3r at 2:34 PM on February 22 [5 favorites]
I wonder if it tried to Jaunt while still online.
posted by hanov3r at 2:34 PM on February 22 [5 favorites]
There's still a chance that someone in the very distant future will play that Golden Record.
We already know what happens to the Golden Record.
posted by hanov3r at 2:43 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]
We already know what happens to the Golden Record.
posted by hanov3r at 2:43 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]
Nature is also very happy to destroy. That's the first thing you learn watching Planet Earth. But look at every silent, dead planet out there. Consider that not too long into the future Nature is going to incinerate this planet and everything on it. In the end--at least according to current theories--by the operation of Nature's own laws, everything will be silent and dead.
And not for any reason, or to any purpose, good or bad. Just because.
that's like, your opinion, man
posted by elkevelvet at 3:01 PM on February 22
And not for any reason, or to any purpose, good or bad. Just because.
that's like, your opinion, man
posted by elkevelvet at 3:01 PM on February 22
An asteroid-sized jukebox filled with iridium-plated records, aimed at habitable planets to change the tune. That sounds like a great sci-fi story. It's all about the beat.
No wireless. Less space than an asteroid-sized Nomad. Lame.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 3:09 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]
No wireless. Less space than an asteroid-sized Nomad. Lame.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 3:09 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]
that's like, your opinion, man
It makes me want to smoke something, too.
posted by praemunire at 4:15 PM on February 22 [1 favorite]
It makes me want to smoke something, too.
posted by praemunire at 4:15 PM on February 22 [1 favorite]
I find pork shoulder is pretty forgiving for a novice smoker, and it's always popular at potlucks.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:51 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:51 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]
Search the web for 0x03915ED3 (the frame delimiter used by Voyager)
Thanks for the heads up. Decoding Voyager 1 was a really interesting read! I love that there are people like this analyzing signals from interplanetary spacecraft!
posted by lock robster at 5:43 PM on February 22
Thanks for the heads up. Decoding Voyager 1 was a really interesting read! I love that there are people like this analyzing signals from interplanetary spacecraft!
posted by lock robster at 5:43 PM on February 22
the thing that we did that will end up outlasting everything else we achieve
I was going to object that things we left on the moon will be preserved just as long, but then remembered that the Sun will expand and engulf the earth in about 4.5 billion years. By that time Voyager will have left the galaxy.
posted by zompist at 7:29 PM on February 22
I was going to object that things we left on the moon will be preserved just as long, but then remembered that the Sun will expand and engulf the earth in about 4.5 billion years. By that time Voyager will have left the galaxy.
posted by zompist at 7:29 PM on February 22
An asteroid-sized jukebox filled with iridium-plated records, aimed at habitable planets to change the tune. That sounds like a great sci-fi story.
The jukebox was supposed to coast in nice and slow, but there was a mixup between the G’Vooont equivalents of inches and centimetres. Somewhere, 290 million years ago, an alien slapped its tentacle to its forehead when it discovered the mistake.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:27 PM on February 22
The jukebox was supposed to coast in nice and slow, but there was a mixup between the G’Vooont equivalents of inches and centimetres. Somewhere, 290 million years ago, an alien slapped its tentacle to its forehead when it discovered the mistake.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:27 PM on February 22
.
posted by Lesser Spotted Potoroo at 10:54 PM on February 22
posted by Lesser Spotted Potoroo at 10:54 PM on February 22
I find pork shoulder is pretty forgiving for a novice smoker
That's the last time I'm listening to you. Now my pipe is all greasy and I'm still coughing.
posted by flabdablet at 11:21 PM on February 22 [7 favorites]
That's the last time I'm listening to you. Now my pipe is all greasy and I'm still coughing.
posted by flabdablet at 11:21 PM on February 22 [7 favorites]
APL, where I work, has a NASA proposal for a mission called Interstellar Probe, which is awaiting NASA funding decisions. Our website about it is here (much cooler when viewed on a computer than on a phone):
Interstellar Probe
That is very cool and it is time we sent out more probes to the edge of the solar system. As I understand it the Interstellar Probe would reach 33 km/s - about double the speed of Voyager? I think a Jupiter gravity assist though can only provide 10 km/s so I am always curious to learn how fast a probe we can actually launch which seems the key to flinging out spacecraft into the galaxy.
(Note: the velocity of 7 au/yr enabled me to use numbat to get the value of 33 km/s)
posted by vacapinta at 4:10 AM on February 23
Interstellar Probe
That is very cool and it is time we sent out more probes to the edge of the solar system. As I understand it the Interstellar Probe would reach 33 km/s - about double the speed of Voyager? I think a Jupiter gravity assist though can only provide 10 km/s so I am always curious to learn how fast a probe we can actually launch which seems the key to flinging out spacecraft into the galaxy.
(Note: the velocity of 7 au/yr enabled me to use numbat to get the value of 33 km/s)
posted by vacapinta at 4:10 AM on February 23
Mod note: Comment removed for denigrating others. Pendragon, if you can't contribute positively to this thread, please move on from it. If you keep adding negative comments, you may face a temporary ban.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 5:16 AM on February 23
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 5:16 AM on February 23
An asteroid-sized jukebox filled with iridium-plated records, aimed at habitable planets to change the tune
You're a genius, O terrible master, there's no end to your evil
posted by flabdablet at 7:16 AM on February 23
You're a genius, O terrible master, there's no end to your evil
posted by flabdablet at 7:16 AM on February 23
the ever popular single from The Carpenters...
to be fair, Klaatu did it first.
posted by philip-random at 11:21 AM on February 23 [2 favorites]
to be fair, Klaatu did it first.
posted by philip-random at 11:21 AM on February 23 [2 favorites]
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to think of the first star trek movie. Remember kids the real lesson here is the insane murderous artificial life forms we made along the way.
Or something.
posted by evilDoug at 11:31 AM on February 23 [1 favorite]
Or something.
posted by evilDoug at 11:31 AM on February 23 [1 favorite]
to be fair, Klaatu did it first.
Who got their name from a line in a 1951 sci-fi movie.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:54 AM on February 23 [1 favorite]
Who got their name from a line in a 1951 sci-fi movie.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:54 AM on February 23 [1 favorite]
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to think of the first star trek movie.
Actually, although I've seen that ST movie (during its original theater run, no less) my first thought was Futurama - which to be fair is a direct reference to the ST movie.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:57 AM on February 23
Actually, although I've seen that ST movie (during its original theater run, no less) my first thought was Futurama - which to be fair is a direct reference to the ST movie.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:57 AM on February 23
Mod note: Fightly derailing comment and response removed.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 7:25 AM on February 24
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 7:25 AM on February 24
Ars Technica: Finally, engineers have a clue that could help them save Voyager 1
It's been four months since NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft sent an intelligible signal back to Earth, and the problem has puzzled engineers tasked with supervising the probe exploring interstellar space.posted by Rhaomi at 6:47 PM on March 15
But there's a renewed optimism among the Voyager ground team based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. On March 1, engineers sent a command up to Voyager 1—more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away from Earth—to "gently prompt" one of the spacecraft's computers to try different sequences in its software package. This was the latest step in NASA's long-distance troubleshooting to try to isolate the cause of the problem preventing Voyager 1 from transmitting coherent telemetry data.
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That was lovely. Clear skies, Voyager I, and thank you for your service.
posted by gauche at 5:15 PM on February 21 [10 favorites]