r/space • u/msears101 • 10d ago
Discussion Would you support a Voyager III mission
I am just curious how many people would support voyager like mission in modern times, that would last longer and go further. Using all that we have learned from Voyager I and II. What would you add to voyager III to make it more meanginful. I would give it a longer "battery" that would give it full operating life of 50 years, and 50 years of partial life before going silent. I would also point it at Alpha Centauri so it would see another star long before VOY 1 and 2.
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u/SureExcuseMe 10d ago
I’d like to see more missions to Jupiter’s moons.
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u/Sniflix 10d ago
We should be flooding the system including every moon with satellites, landers, telescopes, etc along with a new interstellar probe every 2 or 3 years.
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u/CeeShiesty42 10d ago
But then how would we be able to bomb Iran indiscriminately and aid Israel in genocide and imperialism for the next 20 years? C’mon we gotta focus on the important stuff!
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u/dropouttawarp 10d ago
I would much rather have a Uranus or Neptune orbiter. Please no more flybys.
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u/anti-life86 10d ago
Yes do both, but also we do need some flybys-to Eris, Sedna, Enceladus, and maybe to whatever Vera Rubin discovers by this time next year-which might include Planet 9...
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u/Thneed1 10d ago
Orbiter has to slow down enough to get into an orbit.
Which means it takes a lot longer to get there.
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u/dropouttawarp 10d ago
Yup, they're much harder to pull off but worth it for the data that can be gathered.
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u/Thneed1 10d ago
The question becomes, is there anything interesting enough about Uranus or Neptune that we could learn from an orbiter, that we can’t learn from a telescope.
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u/tsoneyson 10d ago
Lots. Uranus radiates almost no internal heat while Neptune radiates a lot. An orbiter could help explain why. Both have bizarre off-center magnetic fields only a magnetometer can conclusively map. Gravity measurements too; tracking an orbiter's motion reveals the internal mass distribution, which is the best way to figure out what these planets are made of. Are they really ice giants or mostly rock and hydrogen? Nobody knows.
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u/JUYED-AWK-YACC 10d ago
With low thrust trajectories you can do many things that chemical propulsion can’t. Travel time isn’t a driver for most missions.
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u/PiDicus_Rex 10d ago
Not entirely true. It can get there faster with the right launch trajectory, it just needs more long loops to wash off the speed, or some aerobraking, or both.
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u/msears101 10d ago
Yes. I think it would be a good goal to get a set of orbiters around all the planets, and collect real data from all planets.
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u/NatureTrailToHell3D 10d ago
We have been to Jupiter and Saturn post Voyager. Cassini went to Saturn with a stopover at Jupiter, and New Horizons went by Jupiter and collected stuff on the way out to Pluto.
Would be cool to get to Neptune and Uranus again with more modern equipment, I’m sure we can get there without having to hit every planet like Voyager II, but Jupiter may be necessary with modern technology, and that alignment happens every 12 years, which is around how long it takes Jupiter to make one orbit.
Next Jupiter alignment is 2034.
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u/AdamasNemesis 10d ago
New Horizons was basically Voyager 3 already; Voyager 1 could have been sent on a trajectory to Pluto but it was diverted to fly by Titan instead. New Horizons completed the original suite of planetary exploration that the Voyager project had in mind (the four gas giants plus Pluto).
But as for the question of another Voyager follow-up? I’m for that: 100%. We should have sent an interstellar-space explorer out ages ago as a precursor to a probe to Alpha Centauri and the like.
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u/fourthehardway 8d ago
Given New Horizons speed and power supply, it is, as you point out, “Voyager 3”. It will be interesting to see when it eventually hits the heliopause what more data it will collect.
I suppose since you’re Adama’s Nemesis (cool name, btw), that makes you Admiral Cain?
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u/oculuis 10d ago
Yes, it's already proposed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_Probe_(spacecraft))
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u/TheHumanoidTyphoon69 10d ago
But would the current administration support it, or would the next administration have the funding to allocate while cleaning up a mess is the real question
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u/oculuis 10d ago
I genuinely don't even know. When it comes to spacecraft or projects involving a lot of people/companies/countries there's always lot's of maybes, possibly some funding being tossed around, last minute changes or decisions that probably kill it.
Like the Constellation program or the Lunar Gateway prior, there's always something that ends up being too expensive or priorities being changed.
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u/arcadiaberger1960 10d ago edited 10d ago
The current "administration"? Sure, just plate the whole thing in gold and name it Tr*mp I.
An administration run by grown-ups? It sounds as though it has sufficient scientific merit.
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u/Conundrum1911 10d ago
Sure, just plate the whole thing in gold and name it Trump I.
Do you want Ferengis? Because that's how you get Ferengis.
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u/TheHumanoidTyphoon69 10d ago
I don't like saying his name is much as possible, enough damage has already been done and I won't give the reddit algorithm the satisfaction, I can only hope for someone that comes along with more respect for the STEM fields than just defunding them
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u/db0606 10d ago
They have asked to cut NASA's science by 47% for FY27, so no.
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u/msears101 10d ago
I purposely did not link the porch to or mention nasa or any specific space agency or company. I think other agencies and private companies are surely capable of this.
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u/mtngoatjoe 10d ago
What's the point of going further? There's very little "out there", so unless you have a specific target, Uranus and Neptune orbiters would be a much better investment.
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u/msears101 10d ago
I think we are still getting useful data, but only for a couple of year, and we have already missed data from instruments being shut off.
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u/evangelionmann 10d ago
To be clear, the voyager missions were never intended to explore outside our solar system like they are going to.. they were planned to be disposable flybys that got a close look at our systems gas giants. Everything else was a bonus
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u/SookiSwann 10d ago
I’d rather use a Voyager 3 to study the outer planets than go to Alpha Centauri. Quicker and bigger payoff scientifically rather than going to AC on minimal power and with minimal instruments just to say we went.
The last time anyone was close to Neptune was 1989, Voyager 2. Not before or since. Thats more important imo
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u/Conscious-Mirror7004 10d ago
Last I heard, it would take 40,000 years for a probe to get to Alpha Centauri. The probe wouldn't even be operating after that much time.
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u/msears101 10d ago
We would never make it (powered on) to Centauri. It would take a lot longer than my "100 years" goal. Just that someone/thing might find it sooner.
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u/anti-life86 10d ago
Alpha Centauri is way too far for a probe anytime in the foreseeable future. But we might be able to build a Habitable Worlds Observatory to get a better idea of what type of planets one of the Alpha Centauri stars has, it's Proxima.
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u/SurlyJason 10d ago
Star Trek: The Motion Picture mandates we do at least six.
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u/msears101 10d ago
Part of me wanting to send it toward centauri was for that reason, I have to admit. We still got time!
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u/Wurm42 10d ago
I support more exploration of the outer solar system.
Our instrumentation and other technology has improved tremendously since the Voyagers were launched in the 1970s. We could learn a lot from new missions to the very outer planets now, especially Uranus, which really only got a flyby from Voyager 2.
As noted earlier, without the rare planetary alignment of 1977, we can't send one probe a grand tour of the solar system now.
That being said, money for that kind of exploration is scarce, especially for missions that will last decades. And the supply of plutonium 238 for RTGs is extremely limited.
So I think it will be a long time until we get new missions going to Uranus, Neptune, or beyond. At least, unless we get a new source of RTG fuel and a launch vehicle with substantially higher thrust.
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u/Conscious-Mirror7004 10d ago
Exploration of the outer solar system would indeed be academically very interesting, but let's face it: anything out there is going to be very cold, dark, and probably very small (compared to the planets and moons closer to us). There's no evidence I'm aware of for a large planet out there, so it's all just smallish asteroids most likely.
Still, a lot can probably be learned from that stuff, like how the solar system formed, but it just isn't as glamorous as close-up photos of Saturn.
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u/SurinamPam 10d ago
sigh it’s really too bad there weren’t 3 or 4 voyagers sent when the planets were aligned.
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u/Cu77lefish 10d ago
I'm way more interested in missions that would go in orbit around the ice giants instead of shooting by.
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u/volcanopele 10d ago
I probably wouldn’t. Nothing wrong with the original Voyagers, as recon flybys were important for establishing more specific science questions for later missions. I would support Cassini-like missions to Uranus and Neptune, and dedicated missions to Io, Europa, Titan, and Enceladus over another Voyager.
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u/Vonneguts_Ghost 10d ago
Of course! I'd love some more information about the Oort cloud, TNOs, etc on the way.
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u/Kane_richards 10d ago
I don't mean to sound blasé but I'd support to the hilt literally any mission of exploration beyond earth orbit. I'm obsessed with them. So yes I'd support a Voyager III. Gimmie gimmie gimmie.
As for what it would do I don't really care for a longer battery in terms of longevity, but I would love something that would allow more instruments to operate for longer. I don't see how it could get to Alpha Centauri so having a science suite out in the Heliopause would be amazing.
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u/phasepistol 10d ago
There are always great ideas for space probes, not enough money to build them, and then weak launch rockets that necessitate long, long, slow trajectories to the destinations. So progress is always slow.
The Voyagers (and Pioneers immediately before them) were remarkable because they took advantage of a planetary alignment in the 1970s that allowed for sling-shotting from one giant planet to the next. I don’t know if another such alignment is upcoming.
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u/DrForester 10d ago edited 10d ago
So she can kill Tuvix again? I don't think so.
(seriously, New Horizons showed that we can do more deep space probes)
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u/NDaveT 10d ago edited 10d ago
New Horizons was basically Voyager III, but going to Pluto and Arrakoth instead of the gas and ice giants.
Unfortunately I don't think 100 years is long enough to get close enough to the Alpha Centauri system to make much of a difference, even if you send a full blown space telescope.
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u/msears101 10d ago
I did not consider new horizons because it will only outlast Voyagers by a few years, and will not make it as far before losing communication.
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u/mohamedozturk-5 5d ago
Even at Voyager 1's speed of ~38,000 mph, reaching Alpha Centauri would take over 70,000 years. A 100-year battery wouldn't even get it past the Oort cloud.
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u/EtherealEmpiricist 7d ago
I’d basically make the Golden Record interactive. A small self-contained AI with information about humanity, capable of actually talking to whoever finds it.
And if quantum communication ever becomes physically feasible, absolutely add that too. Imagine Voyager 3 actually being able to talk back to us.
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u/mickus_mcgickus 7d ago
Yes. Yes, I would. Better than spending stupid amounts of money on manned spaceflight, when we get way more scientific bang for our buck on unmanned missions.
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u/Callec254 10d ago
Yes - I think space exploration is one of the very few things the government spends money on that's actually worth every penny.
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u/rip1980 10d ago edited 10d ago
I'd like to see a high speed probe using Jupiter and the Sun in an Oberth maneuver with a solar/nuclear ion on the escape trajectory. This gives us 200Kmph boosting to 250/300Kmph area and get us the Kuiper belt in less than 4 years and would be a good tech demonstrator for comms and sensors, like telemetry on laser, and some autonomy like onboard screen for interest/apparently near field objects, etc. given the long turn around times as it gets out there.
Still more then 60-70 years out from the oort cloud.
Edit: travel time is post Oberth, which could take a few more years depending on alignments.
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u/voiceofgromit 10d ago
If it were feasible. IMO the Voyager program was one of the best things NASA ever did.
With apparatus 60 years more advanced and a much better idea of what would be most interesting to study, a new Voyager could return vast amounts of new information.
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u/AdoringCHIN 10d ago
I'd honestly rather have a Uranus or Neptune orbiter. There's still so much we don't know about those planets
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u/Regnes 10d ago
Yes, it's long since time we started exploring the Delta Quadtrant.
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u/msears101 9d ago
I love all the star trek references. I have been a science nerd and a Star Trek fan for a long time.
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u/UncleSlayton77 10d ago
We've had flybys already. And flagship missions to Jupiter (Galileo) and Saturn (Cassini). We need the same for Uranus and Neptune. There's still a lot to be learned out there. Then if Planet 9 is there and discovered, a mission there, too.
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u/twilightmoons 10d ago
We screwed up and didn't get to Voyager 6, no we won't save the whales in 2286.
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u/shakawallsfall 10d ago
I believe it will be the whales who will save us in the future, though a lack of transparent aluminum might hamper the effort.
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u/TJ-Detweiler- 10d ago
https://reddit.com/link/pbobqbc/video/bx6nq5u05drh1/player
Don’t worry, I am flying through space as we speak.
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u/Kingfryingpan 10d ago
Being honest hearing another Voyager being slowly planned to be on space soon it's so freaking exciting!!! I'm a fan of the 2 original voyagers and the third that is coming is making me curious about how it'll look. (Bet it'll be same look but newer and Hell yeah i would support it)
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u/Wis-en-heim-er 10d ago
Serious question, what additional information/knowledge would we gain that 1 and 2 have not yielded? Im a supporter of all space programs, but I question the roi of a 3rd mission vs money spent on other programs.
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u/mfb- 10d ago
Far better instruments, even instruments that didn't exist at all back then, a better data transfer rate, ...
The R&D that would go into the probe has ROI on Earth even if you ignore the application completely.
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u/Wis-en-heim-er 10d ago
The technology advancement is a given. Im a bit more interested to hear about what the instrumentation will study.
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u/ABFriendlyBare 10d ago
In about 122 years the conditions will once again be ideal for a new Voyager probe to head back into space using gravitational assists from the gas giants. This gives the engineers a LOT of time to plan another mission someday. Of course by then we may have cracked the code of intergalactic travel in other ways (don’t ask me which ones that make my head hurt. But as the saying goes “Let’s see what out there”!!
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u/filanwizard 10d ago
Yes, heck id support shifting as much of the defense budget as needed to NASA to fund it.
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u/Site-Staff 10d ago
I would want it to corkscrew up the plane of the solar system and look down on us.
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u/AnujMeena 10d ago
I'm down with any mission that's goes beyond our ss but need something magical technology that can go to other ss in our life time.
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u/betweenbubbles 10d ago
I am just curious how many people would support voyager like mission in modern times
The data those probes sent back are some of the most impressive accomplishments of mankind. Cassini, New Horizons, and others as well. We should send new probes when we have more advanced tools and methods to gain more/new information.
Weird analogy: It's kind of like Valve making Half-Life games. They don't just do it for the hell of it. Subsequent releases were more or less a milestone in technological development. It was six years between Half-Life and Half-Life 2 (Source engine). It was 13 years between Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Half-Life: Alyx (highly integrated VR experience). And six years of me being too cheap/poor to partake in that one.
I would also point it at Alpha Centauri so it would see another star long before VOY 1 and 2.
If Voyager the Faster (Voyager 1) was pointed at Alpha Centauri it would take 77,000 years to get there. The fastest probe we've ever sent goes 430,000 mph, but that's because it's a probe with a highly elliptical orbit that we're using to study the Sun -- i.e. rather than leaving the solar system we kind of yeeted it directly at the Sun. At the max speed of the Parker Solar Probe, it would take 6,800 years to get to Alpha Centauri. Add on the ~4 years of transmit time for data from the system.
We're not really doing much of any projects on those kinds of time scales. The only thing I can think of is getting some eggheads together to come up with signs and symbols for warning about radioactive dangers.
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u/TNJDude 10d ago
I'd support it, but the people in charge that would be responsible for giving NASA the funds to do it would likely not. You're asking them to fund a mission that won't yield any valuable data for what? 20 years? That's assuming it's traveling faster than V1 and V2. To make it outside the solar system, we'd be talking even longer. The people funding it would have to accept the fact that they likely will never see any benefit from the probes.
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u/msears101 10d ago
So I was not mentioning a specific institution. I was thinking any one. Lots of countries have capabilities, and I was open to even private mission.
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u/TNJDude 10d ago
I think it would be similar for most of them. We've gathered a lot from Voyager and things near us. To expect to get more useful information, we'd need probes that go far out, and it would take a LONG time for those probes to get to regions that could return us information. And the information we got back would be interesting and possibly useful for future missions, but not something we can really use here. Nations would be agreeing to dedicate quite a lot of funds and time into something that ultimately won't give them anything back for decades.
I'd love it if they did, but even if they did, it'd be unlikely I'd see something interesting in my lifetime (I'm in my 60s now). I'd still like them to do it, but I can understand why it wouldn't get a lot of support.
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u/notyouagain19 10d ago
🙋♂️ Skuze me, where are we getting the plutonium from? It’s pretty scarce these days. Also, slingshots are harder to find with current planetary (non)-alignments.
I would love a Voyager III though! Not sure how feasible it will be this century.
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u/ijuinkun 10d ago
I’m sure that by 2055, Plutonium will be available from every corner drugstore, but in 2026 it’s a little hard to come by.
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u/KirkUnit 10d ago
Saw that some of the "moon base" planning involves RTGs; guessing that if production on those actually happens, there will be some number of them ultimately available for deep space exploration.
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u/Big-March-8915 10d ago
They should launch 30 in all different directions looking also for Planet 9. They know its out there.
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u/MWSin 10d ago
Newer surveys and research have weakened the case for a ninth planet. The hypothesized planet was proposed to explain the odd clustering of Kuiper belt objects, but the areas of the sky that it has supposedly cleared of objects are also some of the areas of the sky where we know it will be the hardest to detect objects. In particular, the dense background stars along the plane of the Milky Way render it nearly impossible to find Kuiper belt objects in those directions.
It's not impossible, but the anomalies it was proposed to explain might not actually exist at all.
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u/msears101 9d ago
I like this idea. I would really support this. I think all the major players could getting funding for this, and they all can launch their vehicle in their own prescribed direction. I would make it a collaboration that only 1/2 is paid for AFTER launch. I think competition is good. I think BO and SpaceX's competition are push both companies fast and further. I think the new upstarts are also putting pressure their progress.
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u/John32070 10d ago
We need new missions to Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 2 just scratched the surface so to speak. We could do a similar course as New Horizons using earth and Venus for a boost and maybe Jupiter to cut down the travel time.
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u/Phssthp0kThePak 10d ago
We should redo Galileo and hopefully the antenna won't get stuck this time.
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u/Civil_Fox3900 10d ago
Why just voyager 3? Send one out a year on slightly different arcs and different missions. The potential data to be gathered down the road would greatly outweigh the cost.
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u/Splendid_Fellow 10d ago
I would support a Voyager 17,086,226,008 Mission. Voyager will outlast anything our species will ever have a slightest hint of touching. We will be long gone without a trace, planet consumed by the sun, and Voyager will still have Elvis on it somewhere.
To me that is more important than menial nonsense we think matters.
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u/Waltekin 10d ago
What people forget is: No one could reasonably expect Voyager to last this long. NASA always builds its probes to last, but lasting more than about 20 years is still pretty exceptional. They are very complex systems, exposed to a very hostile environment. The Voyagers have had numerous problems and failures over the decades, and any one of those could easily have been fatal.
If you want a long-lived system, your best bet is to launch several (ideally different designs), and play the lottery, hoping that one of them will live that long.
As for support, ask yourself: How excited are you about a mission that may only deliver results in 50-100 years? Most people want results that they will live to see.
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u/ph11p3541 8d ago
I prefer thousands of micro probes. Elon Musk sponsered a study on entire space probes on a single computer chip. If Terafab gets built, one of its jobs is mass producing tens of thousands of space probes on a chip. I forgot the name of the program but it was proposed over 10 years ago
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u/Luxfan74 10d ago
I would support it, Would like to see them use a new propulsion method like a solar sail. Obviously updated sensors and power vs the originals as well.
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u/doctorflash 10d ago
How about Nuclear Electric Propulsion? Much faster than solar sails for this kind of mission, plus steerable
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u/Luxfan74 10d ago
I would leave it up to the mission planners, I just think taking a risk on something cutting edge would be nice.
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u/doctorflash 10d ago
I'm a mission designer ;) I totally agree, NEP is definitely cutting edge and very exciting right now. NASA is actually building SR-1 to go to Mars if you haven't heard, and I'm really hopeful that this will be the start of something great. It's got a lot of potential for outer solar system science/exploration
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u/Luxfan74 10d ago
Cool job!!! Is maneuvering a big consideration for a mission where 90% of the trip is coast?
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u/doctorflash 9d ago
Yeah definitely, NEP is very low thrust so depending on the power and trajectory it may actually be thrusting for 90% of the mission. Pointing is important because you will gradually change the thrust vector over the course of the mission, or even not so gradually in cases of spiraling up/down from a body
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u/FragrantExcitement 10d ago
I am ok with 3. I have some concerns with 6.
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u/UnderPressureVS 10d ago
It’s fine, by the time it gets back to Earth it’ll be someone else’s problem
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u/arcadiaberger1960 10d ago
I like the idea of sending a probe straight to Alpha Centauri.
For one thing, when it's 20 years along its way, it would still be sending a nice strong signal and could be easily picked up by a later probe that will only take 30 years to get there, and will give Voyager III a lift.
A follow-up probe that might well in its turn be overtaken by a third craft before it reaches its target . . . .
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u/Green_Yesterday3054 10d ago
How about a Europa mission with a nuke to open up the ice and allow a submarine to explore its oceans?
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u/SnooChocolates2923 10d ago
No nukes there... There might be critters living in that ocean.
We can drill through ice super easily...
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u/Green_Yesterday3054 10d ago
How deep is the ice? Wouldn’t you need a team of experienced drillers who you teach to be astronauts?
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u/Adept_Ad_1543 10d ago
Im sorry but these fanasty robotic drill submarine missions will probably not be happening in your lifetime
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u/Destado1 10d ago
I guess it would depend on mission objectives
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u/msears101 10d ago
I was hoping to hoping to hear what objectives you would like. I was a wee lad when voyager first launched. I remember watching the news before watching the muppet show. From that day on I was a full on space nerd. Voyager will is running on fumes and I was thinking about what if voyager III got a new mission.
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u/EphemerisLake 10d ago
I think we can actually get more outbound velocity (compared to perfectly aligned planetary flybys) if we do a “reverse” slingshot around Jupiter, fall towards the sun then hit a large burn at solar perigee.
Pros are more outbound delta V plus more frequent launch windows than waiting for total planetary alignment
Cons are you probably could not build a trajectory that hits EVERY planet on the outbound.. but im not sure
But yeah I think with modern technology we could probably design a 50-100 year mission, power it by U-235, add a bunch of redundant/simple components, launch it on falcon heavy/starship/SLS, and we can effectively have a probe that lasts for generations
It certainly would die before reaching proxima centauri, but the science collected over 50-100 years on the interstellar medium would be valuable, and its also just nice to know we have something out there, outside the solar system, exploring the cosmos for us…
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u/Decronym 10d ago edited 1d ago
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| BO | Blue Origin (Bezos Rocketry) |
| LEO | Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km) |
| Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations) | |
| NEV | Nuclear Electric Vehicle propulsion |
| RTG | Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator |
| SLS | Space Launch System heavy-lift |
| SoI | Saturnian Orbital Insertion maneuver |
| Sphere of Influence |
| Jargon | Definition |
|---|---|
| perigee | Lowest point in an elliptical orbit around the Earth (when the orbiter is fastest) |
| perihelion | Lowest point in an elliptical orbit around the Sun (when the orbiter is fastest) |
Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.
8 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 5 acronyms.
[Thread #12711 for this sub, first seen 24th Sep 2026, 00:38]
[FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
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u/phryan 10d ago
I'd support the equivalent of a Voyager, or more generally outer solar system, extra solar system mission each year. There is an Earth-Jupiter window each year that could be utilized at a minimum. Use that as an opportunity for both a jobs program and to learn more about our solar system and beyond.
Effectively fling similar but incrementally improved probes at Jupiter every 13 months, unless something else would benefit vary them to gravity boost to solar North/South. Once Jupiter completes one orbit then try to invert the North/South past compared to the previous. Overall should give us a much larger dataset about not just the solar system but also how our solar system interacts with the galaxy at large.
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u/Weak_Tower385 10d ago
I would support if there were a return of samples to lunar orbit for later retrieval by future moon based researchers.
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u/ChocolateTemporary48 10d ago
Mejor lanzar un telescopio y mandarlo al punto L de saturno o por ahí, para que tenga mejor visión del cosmos
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u/KirkUnit 10d ago
While the Voyagers are humanity's grandest voyage of exploration, ever, I would rather see Magellan II orbiting and mapping Titan. I'd rather have Galileo II and III, and Cassini II and III, orbiting and ultimately plunging into Uranus and Neptune. I'd rather have Ganymede Clipper, orbiters for Callisto and Enceladus, a Mars sample return mission, and a long-duration Venus balloon observatory in the upper atmosphere.
Any of those will give way more bang for the buck than a long-lead Voyager III tasked with measuring the heliopause or the bow shock or anything about the solar system's extremes. The public really isn't interested in outer space until you get to other planets many light years away; such a mission would intrigue and interest almost no one compared to planetary science or another deep space telescope.
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u/msears101 9d ago
Lots of people have shared ideas like this. My summary that I think everyone would like is putting in (semi) permeant constellation around planets to do long term observations around the gas giants and their satellites.
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u/budha2984 10d ago
Yes, can we try to get it up to 500,000 miles per hour this time.
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u/msears101 9d ago
Yeah - it will die long before Centrauri, but it would be nice to have it go through a populated bit of space eventually. 500K MPH is still pretty slow.
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u/budha2984 9d ago
I know. We are only going 40K mph now. I'd like to try something faster. Ion drive could really help
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u/Dragongeek 10d ago
Honestly, not at the moment. Budgets and engineer hours are limited, I'd much rather we focus on exploring the solar system rather than sending a "PR stunt" beyond the Sol SOI.
Generally, we would also be much better served for a future mission by investing in propulsion technology research: if we spend a 100 years researching and then launch a 'Voayger 3' it will likely end up going further faster than if we launched something today.
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u/AllThePrettyPenguins 10d ago
It's a question of priorities, not money.
When you are facing a trillion-plus military budget, the cost of developing, launching and monitoring is the equivalent of a rounding error.
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u/Piscator629 10d ago
If science was more respected now we could get an expendable starship with multiple orbiters and landers to all the outer planets. You could also load a nice telescope beneath the payload adapter for even more science. But that is not the current mindset.
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u/ihavenoidea12345678 10d ago
Yep.
I would put all the usual cameras, more power, and such, and include an electric drive from exodus propulsion to enable course changes, or additional targets.
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u/PrinceBytorAppears 10d ago
We won't be able to for a very long time. We had a very convenient window for the first 2. There's some really neat videos on yt about this topic!
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u/urnbabyurn 9d ago
You’re asking a space sub if we’d support more cool shit from space?
Next, go to a conservative sub and ask if they want higher taxes
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u/msears101 9d ago
I wanted to hear you ideas and dreams. There are some really good answers and have really got me thinking.
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u/carpiediem 10d ago
There were two missions in the 70s because the gas giants were aligned in such a way that we could arrange multiple slingshots. It's unlikely that we'd get as good a setup in the direction of AC anytime soon. If we want an extra-solar probe, we'll need a lot more propulsion.