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Voyager 1:  Rest in Peace  

By Shlomo Maital  

      Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System and the interstellar space beyond the Sun’s heliosphere.[1] 

        It is now 15.2 billion mi. (24.3 billion kms.) from Earth as of January 2024.  And it is the most distant human-made object from Earth.   Radio messages take 22 hours, 33 minutes and 35.0785 seconds to travel from Voyager 1 and arrive to us – round trip, that’s 45 hours!    Say “hi!” to Voyager… and it will respond, “Hawarye?” back two days later.  

       Voyager was designed to send data for just a few years.  But it has lasted… so far, for nearly 47 years!  It’s data computer is 1970 technology.  I did my Ph.D. on a Princeton mainframe in 1967,  using punch cards to feed in data, and received printouts on big rolls of hole-punch paper. 

        Voyager is suffering from dementia. Yes, space probes, too, get addled brains.  The data Voyager is sending back is just… gibberish.  NASA engineers have tried turning it off and back on – doesn’t help.    Voyager is way to far from the sun to use solar panels – it has nuclear batteries, amazing ones, that have lasted for 47 years.  But they too will run out of juice soon. 

          Voyager, it seems, was built to last.  Unlike stuff made to day, which is made to break – so we have to buy more of them.  Or made to throw away, because it is too expensive to repair. 

From 15 billion miles away, Voyager is sending a message. 

          Hey, planet.  Keep using the old stuff.  No, you don’t need iPhone 16,  iPhone 12 is perfectly good. (Like mine).  Look at me.  I’m still (barely) alive.  You don’t need to stuff your closet with stuff.  You don’t need to respond puppet-like when the fashion gurus say, baggy pants today, tight pants tomorrow.  Pink today, beige tomorrow.  You don’t need to buy a heavy expensive SUV, just to drive to the corner store. 

         Thanks Voyager.  Who knows?  Maybe one day you will bump into an alien life form, maybe they will capture and revive you…and send us back an incredible ‘hello, Earth’.   Just don’t say,  Take me to your leader.  Because…well,  we really don’t have one at the moment.   

[1] Source: Wikipedia