As it heads out of the solar system never to return, the deep space probe Voyager 1 is headed for yet another cosmic milestone. In late 2026, it will become the first spacecraft to travel so far that a radio signal from Earth takes 24 hours, or one light day, to reach it.
NASA could absolutely build a probe that would last 500 years in space, traveling at 40 km/s or more, for a few billion.
We could make a radioisotope thermoelectric generator that wold last centuries or even millennia. The RTG would need to be quite large for that, but it’s entirely doable and not inordinately expensive. Curiosity has been active for over 13 years and that’s exposed to Martian atmosphere and weather. That being said, it would take thousands of years to reach the nearest star and there’s no telling what sort of propulsion systems will be available even a few decades from now. That hypothetical probe would likely be overtaken by much fast man made objects before long.
Correct me if I’m mistaken, but it sounds like you’re saying we shouldn’t merely because we might have better tech in the future?
That, to me, is a bleak and defeatist mentality that will only hold us back from achieving greater things. Who knows what we could learn before we create better tech? What if we learned how to build the better tech on the back of what we build today? In fact, isn’t that what drives innovation (i.e. iteration)?
~At this point, I’m not suggesting you’re wrong, but merely verbalizing a concern of mine.~
It’s been over a decade since I learned this, so my memory is fuzzy, but I recall that for at least the first several decades of space exploration propulsion technology was advancing at a fast enough rate that it was a real consideration to wait on a mission for better tech.
If a probe launched now would take five years to reach its destination, but propulsion speeds are on track to double in two years, it would make more sense to wait the two years, use more advanced sensor/communication/etc. tech that developed during that time, then still have the new probe arrive before the first would.
I haven’t paid a lot of attention, but I’m guessing the tech is no longer advancing that quickly, so the thought process may not hold as much water, but it’s rooted in practical thoughts. And couldn’t you say it’s rather defeatist to assume that better tech won’t develop, and optimistic to believe that it may?
Yeah, we should be yeeting probes throughout and out of the solar system to learn as much as we can. If the probes of today are overtaken by the probes of tomorrow, that’s just a bonus, and should be cause for celebration.