Voyagers Still Chatting
The farthest manmade objects from the sun are Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, both launched in 1977. This article is about the equipment that has to be maintained to keep talking to them.
They are supposed to call home until 2020. One calls once per month and the other calls every day. Not sure why the difference. I thought one of these 2 were the basis for V'ger in the first Star Trek movie, but I just read it was a fictional Voyager 6. (We only made two.)
If we can have "pong" emulators, why can't our laptops have Voyager emulators? (Ted?)
Not sure why they can't update their equipment and then process the signal to get the low frequency signal out of it. Maybe it's just easier to keep what they've got.
The Voyagers were one of the best space missions of all time. I remember when those pictures started coming back and they were just amazing.