Space Bound #2: Earth's First Interstellar Probes

You may not be aware that we've already sent our first probes into interstellar space: Pioneer 10 and 11, along with Voyager I and II are out of our solar system an heading towards the stars.

The problem is, they won't get there for tens of thousands of years.

Music used:

http://soundcloud.com/musicfromspace
http://reverbnation.com/sounda
http://zero-project.gr/zero-project.html

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• space travel
• astronomy
• voyager
• pioneer
• nasa

[dmfalk]

@djbb975: V'ger was Voyager VI in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

@tdarnell: You keep referring here to Pioneers 1 & 2, when you're actually trying to say Pioneers 10 & 11. The longest-lived deep-space probe we launched was, if I recall correctly, was Pioneer 4, which orbited the Sun between the Earth and Mars. Pioneer 10, although considered dead, is the furthest probe out. The Voyagers are not the fastest probes- New Horizons is presently the fastest probe. (Might even be a Mariner probe that

[tdarnell]

@dmfalk Whoops, meant 10 and 11. Need to pay attention to detail more. Thanks for letting me know.  I should only have said it once though, not repeatedly.

[peha2]

Hi tony, I was wondering if these man-made objects will take so long to arrive at our neighbouring stars, will they degrade in space? Or is space so element-sparce that they will arrive in pristine condition? I'm referring to the shell here, not the battery life/electrical equipment etc.

[tdarnell]

@peha2 Yes they will. There's a lot of dust in the interstellar medium, along with other tiny little rocks floating all over the place. That debris, coupled with cosmic ray hits, slowly degrade the spacecraft and electronics.

No matter what, the voyagers are slowly dying.

[tristbjorn]

@gjvdkamp I think he explained it in another vid. If the planet was stationary, then they wouldn't gain any energy. But because the planets are orbiting the sun, the spacecrafts gain more energy "catching up" to the planets, than they lose on the way out.

[MegiddoVidoq]

Great use of Stellarium!

[wotldthe2006]

@tdarnell They say both will be around in 1 billion years but as of now all the electrical in them both are dieing

[wotldthe2006]

Takes 16 - 20 hours just to send a command to the Voyagers

[coment6]

Will any thing in the ort cloud hit them?

[biggiedickson]

@Zurround100 Not stupid, controlled. Get it right.

[Helge129]

@invizible2u A billion or two?

The US military budget is over a trillion dollars, you moron.

[Hellsing666LLL]

ther is one way to get to alpha centauris or whatever:p ...some genius find a way to trap and secure DARK MATER....and he sad that that whit tis energy we can travel exrtemele fast by spaceships..... hmm i wonder if thath AVATAR movie is true....well atleast the spaceship part...cuz from my opinion it can be dun....if the fucking polititions give some monie for the spacemonkis:D

[sorry8140]

its sad that when i tried looking for this vid the first 10 results were eminem videos. why isn't this #1?

[TheSisko1]

wheres the sound