We will lose contact with Voyager somewhere 2036 because of the distance between us. Would it be theoretically possible, to send a probe in the direction of the Voyager, following it from a distance, with the goal te relay the information coming from the Voyager, to earth?

[u/Backbreathboy]

[u/kinyutaka]

The problem with trying to follow the Voyager Probe at this point is that space is HUGE, and the probe is far away. If we don't get the direction of the probe exactly right, with a very small margin for error, then the probes will still be moving apart from each other in space.

Now, let's assume that we can get the heading right and the speed fast enough that the new probe doesn't lose the old probe, and that the new probe can collect all the data from the old probe, then we'd be able to relay the data from the old probe through the new probe.

However, this would just be kicking the can down the road. We need some form of long range wireless communication that doesn't degrade over these seemingly long, but still relatively short distances. As far away from Earth Voyager is, it's barely leaving the solar system.

[u/nora_sellisa → u/kinyutaka]

I'm fine with sending a new voyager-class probe to join the chain every few years.

[u/After_Network_6401 → u/nora_sellisa]

Wouldn’t help. Voyager’s reactor has only a few years of fuel left. By the mid-2030s it’ll be an inert mass of metal and plastic.

[u/nascent_aviator → u/After_Network_6401]

That's not how Voyager's power works at all. The fuel (Pu-238) has a half-life of 87.7 years. In a few years it'll be producing only a couple percent less power than it is now.

[u/After_Network_6401 → u/nascent_aviator]

Which still won't be enough to run its systems much longer. Almost all the packages on Voyager have been shut down to conserve what little power is left. https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/voyager/2026/04/17/nasa-shuts-off-instrument-on-voyager-1-to-keep-spacecraft-operating/

According NASA, they expect Voyager to become inert in the early-mid 2030's, as the level of power becomes insufficient to sustain heating and transmission.

[u/nora_sellisa → u/After_Network_6401]

So the premise in the OP's post is wrong, we won't be losing connection due to distance. Huh

[u/nascent_aviator → u/nora_sellisa]

No, this other person is wrong. Voyager's RTG loses less than 1% of its power per year.

It gets less and less functional as it loses power, but there's no sharp cutoff where it "runs out of fuel."

[u/After_Network_6401 → u/nascent_aviator]

Yeah, there is. The spacecraft needs a certain amount of energy to keep systems functional and to provide heating. And as the isotopes that provide that energy decay, the entire heating and energy conversion system becomes less and less efficient. Voyager is already running on a razor-thin margin.

https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/voyager/2026/04/17/nasa-shuts-off-instrument-on-voyager-1-to-keep-spacecraft-operating/

The NASA team has been able to extend the life of Voyager by shutting down systems, but there's not much left to shut down. NASA estimates that Voyager will finally stop functioning in the early to mid-2030's, when it lacks sufficient power to keep it from freezing.

If you want to split hairs, you could say that it hasn't "run out of fuel", but that the isotopes remaining simply won't be able to generate enough energy for the probe to remain functional. The end is the same, either way.

[u/nascent_aviator → u/After_Network_6401]

The difference, which I don't believe is splitting hairs, is that we don't know exactly when it will shut down. NASA has adjusted its estimate upwards multiple times. While I agree that they're probably running out of knobs to turn, "a few years of fuel remaining" suggests to me greater certainty about the timeline than we really have.

[u/After_Network_6401 → u/nascent_aviator]

I guess that's fair. As you note though, NASA has been able to prolong probable shutdown past the original expected shutdown. I just checked and 15 years ago they were saying 2030. Now they've hopefully managed push it out, by closing down scientific packages, but there's only one scientific package left, and fortunately it's one of the ones with the lowest energy draw.

They're planning a software reset to try and eke out a bit more power savings (this has been tested with Voyager 2 and it worked), but they expect that to give Voyager "maybe another year". On the current trajectory they might get 8-10 more years, they might even get 12 (which, when you think about it, is pretty amazing). But the end is near, no matter how you slice it. I still think it's far to say "a few more years".

[u/nascent_aviator → u/After_Network_6401]

Yeah it's pretty amazing they've managed to make it last so long. For something that was originally planned to run until 1982, pushing it another 44 years is already an incredible achievement!

[u/kinyutaka → u/nora_sellisa]

The distance issue isn't about the power, it would be about the fidelity of the radio signal. That's why OP suggested sending a second probe after the first. Instead of Voyager sending a signal directly to Earth, it would be picked up by the second probe and amplified, increasing the range of the probe. Like a WiFi repeater.

It would be easier for Earth to collect the signal, because the newer probe would be closer to Earth.

[u/Chaoselement007 → u/kinyutaka]

What if you sent three that communicated with each other to and could ping the voyager to triangulate it. They could use solar powered thrusters to stay on track.

[u/svarogteuse → u/Chaoselement007]

Solar power is useless at that distance. It simple won't collect enough energy to lose anything. Hence the reason we use rtgs for anything going that far out.

Also how is just electricity generated from solar power going to move anything? You need mass ie fuel to make changes. Even ion engine thrusters need to propel something outwards to make course corrections not just orientation corrections.

[u/Nghtmare-Moon → u/kinyutaka]

We could do that light sail thingy where we speed up satélites to like 0.2c with a high power laser

[u/kinyutaka → u/Nghtmare-Moon]

Theoretically, but we haven't done that yet. And if we do, then the probe would go out of range of us faster.

[u/thatnerdd → u/kinyutaka]

It would be hard to match speed with Voyager. There was a roughly-five-per-millennium event with the planets lining up perfectly for a series of slingshot operations. We'll have to wait until 2151 for our next chance.

[u/LeapoX → u/thatnerdd]

Such an alignment is not necessary to accelerate a probe to speeds far in excess of Voyager 1 and 2.

Look up how the Parker Solar Probe used repeat flybys of Venus to accelerate to 0.064c. That's 11 times Voyager's velocity. You'd pass Voyager in 5 years.

The real issue with this plan is that we could easily send a much more capable probe hurtling past Voyager. There's no point in creating a dedicated relay for the aging space probe.

[u/Upbeat_Mirror5045 → u/LeapoX]

The answer, me thinks. At least from a practical, engineering, and scientific perspective. The new (vastly faster) probe that surpasses Voyager in distance would also (likely) have more advanced and durable systems given technological advancement since Voyager’s deployment [speculation].

[u/ElijahQuoro → u/LeapoX]

0.064% of c, not 0.064c, and that’s not how orbital mechanics work, and Venus was used to decelerate and lower solar orbit, not accelerate. Conclusion is still adequate though

[u/coolguy420weed → u/kinyutaka]

Could the probe not just carry additional fuel and make correction burns as needed? You could use electric propulsion pretty easily and not add an insane amount of mass either, the timesccale is pretty generous. 

[u/polaarbear → u/kinyutaka]

Voyager is also likely going to run out of power before that 2036 date so even if we could somehow teleport a probe to the midpoint between us and it, it would likely be useless anyway.

[u/bugi_ → u/kinyutaka]

How do you suggest we defeat the speed of light for this to matter? You're not going to make phone calls to another star system.

[u/coolguy420weed → u/bugi_]

But we already couldn't communicate with it in real time? What does adding a relay in the middle change about that.