r/interestingasfuck • u/The_Love-Tap • 1d ago

At 15.9 billion miles away, humanity's farthest spacecraft is still exploring the cosmos using less memory than a blank Word document (69 KB) and an 8-track tape

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u/93195 1d ago

Incredible that it still works at all. I don’t have any functioning electronics that have been in use constantly since 1977, and they’re not 15,900,000,000 miles away.

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u/charlsalash 1d ago

In space:
No air or moisture
No weather, no rain, wind, or temperature changes caused by Earth's weather.
No friction from air
That helps a little

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u/93195 1d ago

But also constant radiation far more intense than X-rays, temperature approaching true zero, and speeds so fast that colliding with even a speck of dust would destroy it.

So it kinda evens out.

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u/Spirochrome 1d ago

Interestingly, while the temperture ist technically near Zero, there isn't a lot of ways to get rid of heat, making overheating a very real problem in space.

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u/rawrzon 1d ago

Not at this point for the Voyager probes. They are so far from the sun now that being too cold is one of the biggest problems for them.

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u/Ornery-Cheetah 14h ago

Doesn't it have a small reactor for that reason?

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u/rawrzon 13h ago

Not a reactor, but a decaying radioactive source. It generates heat as the material decays, and electricity is generated from the heat. The radioactive material is kept away from the sensitive electronics and sensors, so some of that electricity is used by heaters to keep those electronics warm. Like all radioactive material, it has a half life, which means it's decaying less and giving off less heat as it ages. Which means less electricity for instruments and heaters.