this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2024
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[–] Zier@fedia.io 9 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Cell phone broke, now using pay phone.

[–] beefbot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 14 minutes ago

This is a collect call from: MOMCOMEPICKMEUP IMOUTSIDETHEHELIOPAUSE, do you accept the charges?

[–] EleventhHour@lemmy.world 64 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Always have a backup. You may not use it for 43 years, but you’ll be glad it’s there when you do.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 65 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

I'm only 41 years old.

This recievier has been working for my whole life, goes out of service 15 billion miles away, turns on a backup reciever, and is now back in contact with NASA.

.........but the ice cream machine at McDonalds is still broken.

[–] whostosay@lemmy.world 1 points 3 minutes ago

Holy fuck is the real distance?

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 24 points 3 hours ago

Both are by design. The ice cream machine actually just got a DMCA exception so the company that makes it no longer can dictate who repairs it.

[–] USNWoodwork@lemmy.world 7 points 2 hours ago

I'm picturing the Voyager 1 terminal is an ancient computer from the 1970s hooked up to a large parabolic antenna, and everyone is afraid to upgrade it because they might mess something up. I'm sure that's not the case, but its what lives in my mind.

Since I was thinking about it I looked up some stuff: "So Voyager-1 does not β€œreally” have a computer, in the sense that it does not have an operating system or RAM or a microprocessor. It was built in the 60s before any of this was invented and used CMOS-based microcontroller chips from Texas Instruments. Overall, it has a 16-bit processor and a MASSIVE memory of 70 KILOBYTES. That is smaller memory than a thumbnail of a phone image today, but it was enough to send images through which we discovered Jupiter has rings and much more."

From: https://medium.com/towards-generative-ai/voyager-1-what-computer-system-it-has-that-is-still-running-strong-a269aaea316b

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 18 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

It's sad it'll probably lose contact relatively soon. Does anyone know if there are any plans for a new long distance probe?

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 25 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (2 children)

They're already out there. Just don't get as much news as Voyager. Unfortunately I don't think any will be capable of lasting as long since we stopped using the radio isotope generators. New horizons is currently in the Kupier belt. It's the 5th such probe to reach escape velocity from our solar system. Pioneer 10 and 11 were the other non-voyager probes.

Edit: I was incorrect, new horizons does use an RTG for power. But right now its mission is slated to end in 2029. I wonder if it will be kept alive like the Voyager probes.

Edit 2: yeah, the RTG is slated to run out of power to run the transmitters in the 2030s. It was originally designed to be more powerful but the DOE delayed delivery of the plutonium 238 required.

[–] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

Dept of Education? D O Emissions? Can't figure it out even with some searching

[–] Damage@feddit.it 1 points 30 minutes ago

Department of Entropy

[–] MossyFeathers@pawb.social 8 points 2 hours ago

Department of Energy.

[–] hohoho@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

Department of Energy

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Cool. Thank you for the info. I'll have to look them up.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Sorry I put a couple updates in there as well.

[–] luves2spooge@lemmy.world 7 points 2 hours ago

I think for the Voyager launches the planets and the sun were aligned in such a way that the probes could be slingshotted around them to gain speed. I think such an alignment is quite rare?

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 9 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Talk about a slow troubleshooting process. Thats, what, 80,000,000ms latency?