Recent Comments

1. over 10 years ago on Arlo and Janis

   (Please ignore the strike-through effect there; the comment software interpreted some punctuation oddly, and there is no way to edit it.)

2. over 10 years ago on Arlo and Janis

   Varnes said: “Those crafts really are an achievement that cannot be ignored in the history of humans…”

   the_kraut said: “Why not? They are absolutely useless! The next star to our solar system is Proxima Centari or Alpha Centauri c. The distance to this red dwarf is 4.243 light years….”—-The Voyager probes are indeed useless…as interstellar probes, because they were not designed to be such. Remember that they were only meant as interplanetary probes. That job they have done quite well, far exceeding the original expectations.

   “If there would be intelligent life near Alpha or Proxima Centauri we would know this by now. We would have received some kind of radio signals.”—-This is irrelevant to the Voyager mission, since their instruments are meant for collecting planetary data in this system.

   “I personally think it is a good thing that Voyager I or II are just useless toys and will never reach intelligent life in the universe during the existence of mankind.”—-Again, they are not meant for contact work.

   “I don’t want to become a slave or food reserve of aliens.”—-Interstellar travel is, according to the best physics we have, so difficult that we expect that no one will go out into the galaxy to find slaves or food. Machinery will do the slaves’ work, and food can be grown or manufactured far more easily than by interstellar plundering.

   “But after crossing the orbit of Pluto the signals of Voyager I became to weak to read them.”—-Incorrect. We are still receiving their signals because our equipment is now good enough for it (as Varnes noted).

   “During their intergalactical journey these probes are dead, just scrap iron. What sense does this make?”—-As Charles Smith said: “Additionally, and some might argue more importantly, they continue to relay data that increases our knowledge of astronomy, physics, and solar genesis. They are not inert purposeless lumps sent out without purpose.”

   “In near future we will have propulsion systems which are several times faster than the speed with which the Voyager probes travel. This enables a space ship or a space probe to jump in front of the Voyagers. How is that?”—-Even if we develop the capacity to jump ahead of the Voyagers, we already have the information they could give us. More advanced probes will be able to gather data in realms that the Voyagers cannot reach before their batteries expire.

   “I doubt if we will receive information about the Kuiper belt or the Oort cloud under the circumstances.”—Indeed. For that, we shall have to send faster and/or longer-lived probes. Again, the Voyager mission was not designed for investigating those areas - but that is not a fault, or a waste. (Your car was not designed to float. If you want to float, get a boat — but don’t blame the car’s designers for not intending to have a floating car.)

3. almost 11 years ago on Wizard of Id

   To be (a little) fair to the weathermen…When they say, for example, “30% chance of rain”, they mean: “In these conditions, it rains 3 times out of 10 and doesn’t rain the other 7 times.” So if you get rain on a “30% day”, that was one of the 3; the prediction was not wrong….

4. about 11 years ago on Phoebe and Her Unicorn

   I wonder if the Shield of Boringness is related to the SEP (“Someone Else’s Problem”) technology in the Hitchhiker’s Guide universe…