Should NASA turn Voyager I back around?

[saxitoxin]

I read the other day that Voyager I will run out of gas in 2025. That's just 23 years away.

Should NASA turn it around and put the pedal to the metal to get it back to the Earth? It probably cost a lot of money to build. If we get it back, they can gas it up and send it the other direction to see if whatever they're looking for is over there. Otherwise it will have been a total waste.

Mets?

[nietzsche]

I read the other day that Voyager I will run out of gas in 2025. That's just 23 years away.

Should NASA turn it around and put the pedal to the metal to get it back to the Earth? It probably cost a lot of money to build. If we get it back, we can gas it up and send it the other direction to see what's over there. Otherwise it will have been a total waste.

Mets?

That's not how it works.. Saving money is not the work of the government. It's better for everyone at NASA to get more money to build a new one.

[Funkyterrance]

I vote send it back on the notion that littering space, like anywhere else, is low class.

[saxitoxin]

What if NASA just sent it back halfway, like to Jupiter - sent something to meet it there and gas it up, then turned it around and let it go back again? They'd lose a little time having to backtrack, so that's a possible drawback.

[saxitoxin]

WHAAA?!?! SAXI, WTF?

[saxitoxin]

I heard they've stowed a rotissirie chicken aboard Voyager. Would like to get it back.

[x-raider]

...Looks for option labeled "they should join star-fleet"...

It's a hilarious premise that leads to pictures of rotisserie chickens that look like tigers...

Did they even equip it with a turn-around button?

[Funkyterrance]

What if NASA just sent it back halfway, like to Jupiter - sent something to meet it there and gas it up, then turned it around and let it go back again? They'd lose a little time having to backtrack, so that's a possible drawback.

Wouldn't the thing they built to go to Jupiter cost nearly as much to build as the old one? Even if it didn't, it would be fueling up something that would be pretty obsolete by that point. In fact, the first one is probably already obsolete. Send the old one back and recycle it to make a brand new, state of the art waste of money.

[notyou2]

Turn it around and fly it into the sun.

[Funkyterrance]

I heard they've stowed a rotissirie chicken aboard Voyager. Would like to get it back.

Kitty!

[Metsfanmax]

Should NASA turn it around and put the pedal to the metal to get it back to the Earth?

No. The idea has always been to keep going and explore more about the boundary between our solar system and the rest of our galaxy. It will keep doing so even after it runs out of "gas."

[Funkyterrance]

Should NASA turn it around and put the pedal to the metal to get it back to the Earth?

No. The idea has always been to keep going and explore more about the boundary between our solar system and the rest of our galaxy. It will keep doing so even after it runs out of "gas."

Yeah but can it communicate without "juice"?

[Metsfanmax]

Should NASA turn it around and put the pedal to the metal to get it back to the Earth?

No. The idea has always been to keep going and explore more about the boundary between our solar system and the rest of our galaxy. It will keep doing so even after it runs out of "gas."

Yeah but can it communicate without "juice"?

Sort of. It will keep going for a few years before 2025 with enough power left to send signals, but not to run its main scientific instruments.

[maxfaraday]

Should NASA turn it around and put the pedal to the metal to get it back to the Earth?

No. The idea has always been to keep going and explore more about the boundary between our solar system and the rest of our galaxy. It will keep doing so even after it runs out of "gas."

Yeah but can it communicate without "juice"?

Sort of. It will keep going for a few years before 2025 with enough power left to send signals, but not to run its main scientific instruments.

They did not give it solar panels? It could communicate forever.

[Metsfanmax]

Should NASA turn it around and put the pedal to the metal to get it back to the Earth?

No. The idea has always been to keep going and explore more about the boundary between our solar system and the rest of our galaxy. It will keep doing so even after it runs out of "gas."

Yeah but can it communicate without "juice"?

Sort of. It will keep going for a few years before 2025 with enough power left to send signals, but not to run its main scientific instruments.

They did not give it solar panels? It could communicate forever.

Solar panel technology barely existed in 1977.