Voyager and the Coming Great Hiatus In Deep Space

MatthewVD writes "Some time in the next decade, the Voyager probes will run out of juice and finally go silent after almost a half century of exploration. John Rennie writes that the lack of any meaningful effort to follow up with a mission to interstellar space shows the "fragile, inconsistent state of space exploration." It's particularly frustrating since the Voyagers have tantalized astronomers with a glimpse into about how the sun's magnetic field protects us from (or exposes us to) cosmic rays. Have we gone as far as we're willing to go in space?"

Comments

VEEEE GERRRRRR!

[Anonymous Coward]

VEEEE GERRRRRR!

Queue the SyFy Channel Original Movie About...

[iPaul]

The voyager spacecraft popping a plasma bubble and sending it to Earth, requiring a heard drinking high school physics teacher (played by Stephen Baldwin) and a heart-of-gold exotic dancer, but former Navy Seal (played by an anonymous starlet), to save the day.

We've probably gone farther

[siddesu]

There is virtually no interest in space among the many people I interact with, my customers, my suppliers, the other parents at school, or my neighbors. My interest in astronomy and space is regarded in the same manner as my telescopes, as a curiosity or mild eccentricity.

I can't imagine that people like these will be willing to commit money, either as tax or investment, in furthering space research, not until they see something that affects them personally and requires return to space.

On the positive side, this something can be anything, even a surprise threat from North Korean FTL probe leaving for Alpha Centauri.

Re:We've probably gone farther

[jo42]

I can't imagine that people like these will be willing to commit money, either as tax or investment, in furthering space research, not until they see something that affects them personally and requires return to space.

Yes. It's far more important to be rich and famous in America. It's far more important to kill brown people in the middle east so that they have oil and gas to driving their fat, lazy, stupid, ignorant asses around in gas guzzling SUVs, Mercedes and BMW douche-mobiles. It's far more important to piss away untold billions of dollars bailing out the greedy fucktards on Wall Street.

Of course, let's not mention all the scientific advances that these people benefit from that came from the space program. After all, God created the cell phone, the car, the air conditioner and all the other bits of technology this ignorant retards take for granted every single day of their useless, uncreative, unproductive lives.

The best part is, these people get to vote for who runs the government, in turn the country and who bullies the rest of the world around. Long live America, land of the free, home of the brave.

Re:We sure don't make stuffs like they used to

[flyneye]

We were so poor, we couldnt pay attention.

Our computer was a calculator and a typewriter taped to the television.

Our internet was tin cans and a wire to the outhouse.
We would decode grandmas farting in morse code bit by bit.
Some webpages would take a month of feeding Mawmaw beans and cheese to load in.

You whippersnappers and your internet, Mawmaw eats windows boxes and farts Mac chunks with her intestinal O.S. and talk about a secure connection.Whooee Peeyooo! The other day we fed her at the Pizza Hut buffet and she had the shits so bad we got to watch Netflix.