Voyager 1 Satellite Reaches Edge of Solar System

[MarineTpartier]

I tell you, NASA hasn't produced any news in a looooong time (yes, including the Mars rover) that I am interested in. I am a big opponent of the money we spend on NASA. I think there are far more important things that we should be spending money on than this. However, this story has me very intrigued. There are some pretty funny comments at the bottom of the story as well. Things such as "Wouldn't it be cool if it hit a wall?" or "What if it discovered that the solar system is flat?". I am very interested to hear what it finds. Also, as is said in the comments, it is amazing this thing is still working 35 years after its launch. A true technological feat IMO.
Voyager 1 probe leaving solar system reaches "magnetic highway" exit - Yahoo! News

 

[Fisher]

Never worry. It will be back, all suped up and pissed off, looking to meld with its creator. It sure is gonna be mad when it finds out NASA is gone.....

 

[Helix]

this fact that it's still transmitting continues to amaze me. kudos to the NASA team. and to Voyager, so long, and thanks for all of the fish.

 

[Grim17]

Wow... If that doesn't bring a little perspective of just how large space is, nothing will. Thirty five years just to leave our neighborhood.

If my math is correct, just for Voyager to have traveled far enough to reach the closest star to us (Proxima Centauri), it's journey has another 77,500 years to go.

 

[Fisher]

this fact that it's still transmitting continues to amaze me. kudos to the NASA team. and to Voyager, so long, and thanks for all of the fish.

yeah I think it amazes NASA too.

 

[Velvet Elvis]

I still have all the National Geographics that were dedicated to each of the planet explorations. Yes, kiddies...as early as 1980, Saturn was the only planet with rings...Earth was the only object in the solar system with volcanic activity...and curiosities like Titan's liquid ethane lakes weren't even thought to exist. Y'all just don't know how truly awesome it was, every few years, to get that NatGeo magazine after one of the Voyagers had passed the next planet, and just stare at the wonders on those pages.

It will truly be a sad day in science, when the last Voyager finally goes dark. ...hopefully not before transmitting back a ton of data on interstellar space.

 

[DiAnna]

When I was a kid, I honestly thought we'd be exploring planets outside our solar system by now. Yeah, I know, I'm a Star Trek kid with delusions of grandeur. I'm really disappointed how little we've advanced since landing on the moon, and mourn the loss of NASA even as I understand that it has become an under-funded boondoggle.

At least when I want to see what space travel of the future might really be like, I can pop in my Mass Effect trilogy and save the damned galaxy all by myself! It... dulls the pain of our boring, earth-bound reality. :mrgreen:

 

[rjay]

When I was a kid, I honestly thought we'd be exploring planets outside our solar system by now. Yeah, I know, I'm a Star Trek kid with delusions of grandeur. I'm really disappointed how little we've advanced since landing on the moon, and mourn the loss of NASA even as I understand that it has become an under-funded boondoggle.

At least when I want to see what space travel of the future might really be like, I can pop in my Mass Effect trilogy and save the damned galaxy all by myself! It... dulls the pain of our boring, earth-bound reality. :mrgreen:

It was easy to think like that, then.
In the first fifty years of flight we went from being able to fly to landing on the moon. Who knew where the next fifty years would take us.

 

[Utility Man]

I tell you, NASA hasn't produced any news in a looooong time (yes, including the Mars rover) that I am interested in. I am a big opponent of the money we spend on NASA. I think there are far more important things that we should be spending money on than this.

....What has NASA discovered while galavanting about space that has positively impacted the human race?.......

".....All of you can throw around the anti-science tag all you want and it won't stick. You won't find any proof of me saying anything against science....."

.....I am very interested to hear what it finds. Also, as is said in the comments, it is amazing this thing is still working 35 years after its launch. A true technological feat IMO.....

What in the world does that have to do with the fact that the US Space Program is worthless?Or was that just your pitiful attempt at baiting me? Bait fail

NASA is priceless!

 

[Jredbaron96]

Bye-bye Voyager.



Stay safe.

 

[MaggieD]

I tell you, NASA hasn't produced any news in a looooong time (yes, including the Mars rover) that I am interested in. I am a big opponent of the money we spend on NASA. I think there are far more important things that we should be spending money on than this. However, this story has me very intrigued. There are some pretty funny comments at the bottom of the story as well. Things such as "Wouldn't it be cool if it hit a wall?" or "What if it discovered that the solar system is flat?". I am very interested to hear what it finds. Also, as is said in the comments, it is amazing this thing is still working 35 years after its launch. A true technological feat IMO.
Voyager 1 probe leaving solar system reaches "magnetic highway" exit - Yahoo! News

Pretty soon Voyager is going to run into the metal locker door.

 

[KevinKohler]

To me, it's less a feat of technology, and more of shear dumb luck, that Voyager is still function properly.

As for space travel? Short of finding some sort of mass relay device on mars, a'la Mass Effect....


We're stuck in our solar system for a long, long time. We have trouble exploring the bottom of our ocean. The galaxy? Forget it. It's not about finding ways to go fast...we can do that, I've no doubt. Safely?


Not so much.

 

[Monserrat]

When I was a kid, I honestly thought we'd be exploring planets outside our solar system by now. Yeah, I know, I'm a Star Trek kid with delusions of grandeur. I'm really disappointed how little we've advanced since landing on the moon, and mourn the loss of NASA even as I understand that it has become an under-funded boondoggle.

At least when I want to see what space travel of the future might really be like, I can pop in my Mass Effect trilogy and save the damned galaxy all by myself! It... dulls the pain of our boring, earth-bound reality. :mrgreen:

I'm disappointed too. I thought we would have made it to mars by now (we as in people stepping foot on martian soil), it's just a matter of funding, radiation protection and avoiding martian dust storms.

Totally doable and if the USSR didn't fall apart we probably would have been there by now. They always ruin everything :moody

 

[MarineTpartier]

NASA is priceless!

Actually, it costs about 17 billion a year to you and I.

 

[American]

Bye-bye Voyager.



Stay safe.

You're going to have to yell a lot louder for it to hear you.

 

[American]

Pretty soon Voyager is going to run into the metal locker door.

Isn't Voyager a fake. :lol:

 

[Northern Light]

I'm really amazed and impressed that Voyager is still functioning and transmitting across such huge distances!

I share Dianna's disappointment about our progress in space, but maybe the demise of NASA is just a sign that our priorities here on Earth are not fit for a proper space age yet. Part of me hopes though that the ISS launches are actually secret transports going to a Moon base that will one day be revealed to everyone.

A girl can dream can't she?

 

[PeteEU]

But didn't Voyager come back from the Delta quadrant a while back?

 

[RabidAlpaca]

I'm really amazed and impressed that Voyager is still functioning and transmitting across such huge distances!

I share Dianna's disappointment about our progress in space, but maybe the demise of NASA is just a sign that our priorities here on Earth are not fit for a proper space age yet. Part of me hopes though that the ISS launches are actually secret transports going to a Moon base that will one day be revealed to everyone.

A girl can dream can't she?

Actually, rather concrete plans are being laid to have permanent settlers on Mars by 2023. By 2018 they will be sending ahead supplies and robots to set up the installation.

Mars Colonists Wanted to Explore Red Planet | Space.com