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7.29 billion miles

 
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Is how far away one of our satellites are. I never knew we did stuff like this. They send these things out and they just keep going. All the while we talk to them. Interesting
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/04/29/spacecraftfound.ap/index.html
 
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2 million years later someone in the Taurus constellation will have a chance to find it. Makes me wonder...if something from another civilization, say about the size of Pioneer10, were floating through our solar system, is there any way we could locate it? I doubt it.
Paul R
 
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Didn't you guys ever catch those episodes on the original Star Trek when VGER is looking for his creator? VGER is actually Voyager from earth but is on some Alien mental steroid from passing through some nebula or something...
OP
 
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That was very interesting. One thing though, wasn't this statement a bunch of hooey...
"Even in silence, the spacecraft will continue its steady voyage toward the constellation Taurus. It should pass one of the stars in the constellation more than 2 million years from now."
Before 2 million years have passed, won't that thing be so much space dust?
 
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The definition from Webster's of what a satellite is:
2. (Astron.) A secondary planet which revolves about another planet; as, the moon is a satellite of the earth. See {Solar system}, under {Solar}.
So how can that thing be a satellite? It isn't revolving around anything it's just moving outwards from the earth. Isn't it more of a probe? Or one of those capsules containing messages from the earth, chuck berry records, etc. (sort of like a time capsule).
What I wonder about is whether the satellites that revolve around the earth are ever going to start bumping into each other? Surely it's just a matter of time before it gets crowded up there.
 
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Originally posted by George Brown:
So how can that thing be a satellite?


George, I believe you are correct Voyager 10 is not a satellite, it's a spacecraft.

Originally posted by George Brown:
What I wonder about is whether the satellites that revolve around the earth are ever going to start bumping into each other?


As far as the satellites in our orbit. The US government tracks them very carefully. In fact, there is an agency that does nothing but track space junk (abandoned satellites) to see when and where they will re-enter the atmosphere and where they might land if any parts survive re-entry. If they are nuclear powered the core is dense enough to survive the heat of re-entry. Just think you could have a 500lb chunk of radioactive metal land in your back-yard someday!

Originally posted by Matt DeLacey:
Before 2 million years have passed, won't that thing be so much space dust?


It won't be space dust if nothing hits it. It shouldn't decay, in the vacuum of space. It may run out of power so far from any solar radiation, however.

[This message has been edited by Ray Marsh (edited May 03, 2001).]

 
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one of my Chiefs (Navy) worked at the "War Games" place in Colorado a few years ago. his job was to monitor the electromagnetic interference received by the satallites.
but, (what Ray is talking about) there were several people there whose sole job was to track each and every known object in orbit... he said one time while he was there (3 years) they actually had to delay a shuttle launch because there would be a disabled satallite in the way.
can you imagine being responsible for that much data??? or worse yet, being the person who wrote the program that processes the data.
 
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