David Whitehouse

Farewell, Voyager 1

issue 13 April 2024

Some time soon we will have to say farewell to our most distant emissary – the Voyager 1 spacecraft. After almost 50 years in space, it’s 15 billion miles away and showing signs of wear and could soon stop transmitting.

Late last year, Voyager 1 began to decline, sending back spools of gibberish to its handlers on this planet. A few days ago, Nasa engineers finally traced the problem back to a single chip but it’s clear that Voyager 1 will shortly have to cut contact and make its way out across the universe on its own. It’s strange to think that it will be exploring on out into deep space long after its makers – humans – have become extinct.

Who knows what alien skies Voyager might traverse during some distant eon

Voyager’s isolation is impossible for us truly to comprehend. Light – the fastest possible traveller – takes just over a second to reach the moon, and about four hours to pass the most distant planet, Neptune.

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