Voyager I is leaving the neighborhood

[Nash B.]

Too bad we can't build anything near that quality today.

Riiiiiight!

[Strychnine]

Too bad we can't build anything near that quality today.

like multiple vehicles to explore the surface of another planet?

Or orbiting telescopes capable of seeing the farthest reaches of the visible universe or detecting planets around distant stars?

Or facilities here on Earth capable of breaking atoms into their constituent parts, most of which have funny names no one has ever heard of? (down quark... hilarious)


We have incredibly badass toys today. They just don't do exactly what some of the last generation of toys did.

[Treasure Chest]

Yea, it's crazy!

How the heck can that thing have fuel for 43 years?!

The note in regards to the data transmissions traveling at the speed of light and taking 16 hours to get here is neat.

.....and in 2012, the best we have is E-85 gas and crappy hybrids that sure as hell won't last 43 years....

[Geor!]

i wanna talk to samson fly me to the moon like that bitch alice kramden

[Rick Modena]

i wanna talk to samson fly me to the moon like that bitch alice kramden

No thank you for your bday thread, asshole?

[Forever_frost]

With this going as far as it has, why haven't we progressed beyond the rockets we have? You'd think we'd be up to nuclear pulse engines to take us to at least the next planet. It is amazing that a chunk of metal with less computing power than my desktop is still rocking along so many years later.

[03trubluGT]

With this going as far as it has, why haven't we progressed beyond the rockets we have? You'd think we'd be up to nuclear pulse engines to take us to at least the next planet. It is amazing that a chunk of metal with less computing power than my desktop is still rocking along so many years later.

It's because the source for dilithium crystals has not been discovered yet.

[Forever_frost]

It's because the source for dilithium crystals has not been discovered yet.

Close but not required.

Nuclear pulse propulsion or external pulsed plasma propulsion, is a theoretical method of spacecraft propulsion that uses nuclear explosions for thrust.[1] It was first developed as Project Orion by DARPA, after a suggestion by Stanislaw Ulam in 1947.[2] Newer designs using inertial confinement fusion have been the baseline for most post-Orion designs, including Project Daedalus and Project Longshot.

[Binky]

With this going as far as it has, why haven't we progressed beyond the rockets we have? You'd think we'd be up to nuclear pulse engines to take us to at least the next planet. It is amazing that a chunk of metal with less computing power than my desktop is still rocking along so many years later.

Technically the average smartphone is expoentially more powerful than the spacecraft.

[mstng86]

Technically the average smartphone is expoentially more powerful than the spacecraft.

Hell, the first Palm Pilot had more power.

[Forever_frost]

See that's what I was thinking. With what they had, that sucker is still moving and working. I can't get a laptop to last 2 years.

[mstng86]

See that's what I was thinking. With what they had, that sucker is still moving and working. I can't get a laptop to last 2 years.

There is no porn to download in space.

[Forever_frost]

There is no porn to download in space.

That you know of. We've been beaming TV into space for decades

[Strychnine]

With this going as far as it has, why haven't we progressed beyond the rockets we have? You'd think we'd be up to nuclear pulse engines to take us to at least the next planet. It is amazing that a chunk of metal with less computing power than my desktop is still rocking along so many years later.

Other than some hydrazine thrusters for orientation Voyager doesn't have propulsion. It moving thanks to the gravity assist it got from Jupiter and Saturn and the fact that there is no drag in space.

We are already working on ion drives, solar sails, etc though. As for nuclear power (accessory power like an RTG, not propulsion), just about everytime they try to launch a nuke powered spacecraft the greenies have something to say about it. "What if it explodes on liftoff like Challenger and rains radioactive death on all of us?"

[Forever_frost]

Ion drives are good once you're in interstellar space (slow to accelerate) and solar sails would be good close to a star. Neither of them give us the speed we need. I was interested in the nuclear pulse as it has the potential to hit a lot of speed fairly quickly.

As far as the greenies, I'd love to find a planet we can move to and ship them to it. "Want to save a planet? Here you go. Completely pure. Keep it that way."