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Interstellar Pioneers Facing Termination
marcel-jan.nl writes "There are plans to terminate the interstellar missions Voyager 1 and 2 and the solar mission Ulysses in October to save money. The Voyagers alone need $4.2 million a year for daily operation and data analysis. Scientist say this cut is "an extremely foolish thing to do": the Voyagers are approaching the edge of the Solar System and Ulysses is observing the Sun coming to the end of a 22-year magnetic cycle."
Do not look into the sun with your remaining $4.2 million.
liqbase
Doesn't our government spend that much money like, every tenth of a second? Geeze, Congress should be able to find that much money in the seat cushions of their couch.
We must continue to monitor V_y_ger's progress so that we aren't taken by suprise when he returns.
You sly dog: you got me monologuing! - Syndrome
The Voyagers alone need $4.2 million a year for daily operation and data analysis.
Maybe we should start using FedEx.
So... THIS is how one of the Voyager spacecraft becomes a super-powerful entity and we have no clue whats going on when it comes back to kill us all.
If only we had kept monitoring the transmissions from the Voyager spacecraft, we'd be able to tell when it starts its homicidal rampage.
... and in the DRM, bind them.
America should stop polluting space with our arrogant imperialist dirty probes.
I mean, the V'grs havae a 28 year headstart. building a Human Resources probe fast enough to catch up with them may be cost-prohibitive. It might be cheaper just to keep 'em both on the books and write them off at tax time.
- Despite popular opinion, I am not perfect.
Spend a few dollars now to take care of our electronic children as they race off into space and maybe they'll be a little less pissed off when they return.
SD
âoeWho knew something as harmless as willful ignorance could end up having real consequences?â
I'm surprised North Korea hasn't just hacked the Voyager crafts yet. It wouldn't take much programming skills (just a seriously powerful transmitter/receiver) to upload your own firmware into those suckers that locked out anyone else's signal.
Maybe they should just open source the sucker. Let the open source community run the science. Put the sucker on sourceforge and give us access to the transmitters everyone once in a while.
Someone you trust is one of us.
If they were working in tents and using abacuses.
Now before I get modded down, I be to remind whoever might read this that what I am saying is FACT. - bogaboga
The Voyager program is the one that rebuilds itself as a giant starship, renames itself V-ger and blazes a path of destruction on its way to destroy Earth, right?
This comment was generated by a squadron of trained super elite albino ninja chickens for you.
I think the real story here is that the Aliens told NASA to cease and desist from sending probes into their territory.
Why do you think we've never been back to the moon?
Because the Aliens are mining the back side of it with their huge motherships, and NASA have been told to stay away.
Wild Shrimp!!! Woo Hoo!
You just don't understand the economics here....$1 million bucks is a small investment considering how much money the government will get back from the sales of all of the "Shrimp Gone Wild" videos.
By my calculations at $166 million a day to be in Iraq, the US government could save the Voyager's first year's $4.5 million by leaving Iraq 39 minutes early. That seems reasonable.
Those who can do. Those who can't sue.
That was Voyager 6. Since Voyager 6 never launched, then we know we're in a divergent (but parallel) universe where the probe will never come back to threaten Earth. No idea on the Whale probe, though.
The Klingons blast Pioneer 10 (which, incidentally, is farther out than the Voyagers are). Perhaps this funding cut is why Voyager comes back to kill us in a few centuries ...
"Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
"Sheeyit yeah! It's not like I'm made of money, for God's sake! I really need that extra cash to pay for the important things. Like my credit card bills for my Hummer's gas, my 72" plasma screen TV with 700 channel cable TV plus 350 satellite dish subscriptions, my titanium alloy kitchen appliances (32 cubic foot refrigerator, dual dishwashers, counter-based ice maker, iced frappaccino maker, pasta mill, etc.), my 'spinnaz', and all my bling, as well as the occasional and completely necessary trip to Windsor for some 'recreational' gambling."
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
Bush will just look up what they were going to teach us in the Bible....
Department of Homeland Security: Removing the rights real patriots fought and died for since 2001
Yes!
Think of those 'rubber sheet' diagrams -- showing the distortion of space by gravity as a nice smooth event.
Now those four probes are out where they ought to be getting close to 'flat' space far from the sun -- and they're finding what could be wrinkles.
There's your 'space warp' -- if you can show there's any such thing.
No, better cut the funds FAST. It's not in the Bible, so we don't want to risk discovering it.
It's "mea culpa", not "mia colpa". :P
Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
blazes a path of destruction on its way to destroy Earth, right?
:)
You might be confusing it with a Vorgon constructor ship... It is yellow in color and kind of hard to miss and confuse with anything else...
starship voyager. It's discontinued mission, to seek and find a new job...To boldly go where everyman in the unemployment line has gone before.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.