Editing 2624: Voyager Wires

{{comic
| number    = 2624
| date      = May 25, 2022
| title     = Voyager Wires
| image     = voyager_wires.png
| titletext = Also, they're getting increasingly worried that someone will accidentally hit the 'retract' button, and that the end of the cable thrashing around as it winds up could devastate the Earth's surface.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WIRE CUT BECAUSE OF BUDG- are you there houston?  it's me v----ger, you'll never guess what I found!  Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic claims that the {{w|Voyager program|Voyager probe}}s communicate with NASA though ridiculously long copper wires, when in reality they use radio waves.[https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/] These wires would have to be continuously lengthened as the probes travel away from Earth. Supposedly, because of "high copper prices and budget constraints," they may not be able to afford to lengthen the wires much longer. If this occurred, they would have to either cut the wires or let them break, which would prevent any further communication with the probes. As mentioned earlier, however, they actually use radio waves, not long copper wires, so this will not actually happen.

If copper wires were dragged by the Voyager probes, 550 tons of copper would be needed per hour if the cable was 1mm² thick and it would add 1 million Ohm per hour to the cable resistance. 

The resulting wire would slow down the probes by drag, but be perfect space elevators for lightweight spacecraft.
Of course, since the Earth spins, the wires would also spool around the Earth, slowing the probes down even further. Clearly, this is not a good idea.{{citation needed}}

This doesn't even factor in how the Earth, in its rotation around the sun, will drag these copper wires in a circular orbit leading the wires through the sun at least once per year.  The difference between the melting point of copper and the average core temperature of the sun has not yet been established by reproducible experiment, but is believed to be incompatible with the high quality required for signal transmission.
 
The consequence of a cable between a craft in space and a planetary location being suddenly retracted was recently demonstrated in the first episode of the Apple TV+ series ''{{w|Foundation (TV series)|Foundation}}'', wherein a {{w|space elevator}} tether was severed. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huRmvG3zRpg It didn't end well for anyone other than the terrorists] who won the freedom of thousands of inhabited worlds which had formerly suffered under the jackbooted oppression of {{w|Trantor}}'s fascist galactic Empire regime. 

A few days before this comic was released, [https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/details.php?article_id=124 NASA had reported] receiving corrupted position data from the Voyager 1 probe.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[There is an image of a space probe, presumably one of NASA's Voyager probes, with a long wire connecting it to the earth. To the left, there is a second wire, which goes offscreen. Below, there is a caption.]

:[Caption below the panel]:
:Sad news: Due to high copper prices and budget constraints, NASA may finally have to cut the wires that they've been spooling out to communicate with Voyager 1 and 2.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space probes]]