XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.space, alt.science
XPost: alt.politics.usa

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13311779/Voyager-1-losing-contact-stunning-images-eternity.html

Today, after nearly 50 years exploring the cosmic unknown
and clocking up, incredibly and against all expectations,
15 billion miles, this little tin can — the size of a small
car — is still going and communicating with ground control
on Earth.

Voyager, however, is starting to show signs of old age and,
for now, has stopped transmitting effectively.

The usable data it sends back in binary code has carried
no meaning since last year. Nasa engineers are optimistic
they can fix this problem, though, which emanates from a
single computer chip.

But even when Voyager's nuclear batteries (using electricity
generated from heat produced by the decay of the lump of
plutonium powering Voyager) die in the next few years, and
the umbilical cord with Earth is cut for good, the spacecraft
will continue to float through the universe in perpetuity,
whatever fate befalls mankind.

. . .

I suppose all good things come to an end - but this
one made it completely out of the solar system.

IF they can fix the current prob they may still be
able to get some data from it for perhaps another
year or so. The very ability to fix such complex
problems from so far away is ultra-impressive
unto itself ... part of the black magic of
spacecraft systems design.

Alas, the Klingons will find The Record someday
and conquer Earth ... oh well ...... some of
the best minds DID warn us ...........

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