Talk:2624: Voyager Wires

This is fun - assuming a pair of 14ga wires were run the 14.5 billion mile distance from Earth to Voyager 1, the mass of copper would be on the order of 10¹² kg, or ~5 times the mass of copper ever mined out of the earth. 172.70.126.87 17:18, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Wow, that's a lot of copper! I wonder how they've been communicating with the probes up until now? :) Danny E. Corchado (talk) 20:46, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Why are you assuming 14 guage when [https://precmfgco.com/wire-gauge-sizes-guide/ 30 guage (0.08mm diameter) is for sale? Only 3,440 Ohms per kilometer! 172.68.133.89 00:02, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

At current prices for copper, this spool would cost ~9.6 trillion dollars. Surprisingly, that's only about a third of the US national debt. --KrazyKat (talk) 17:29, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

The problem of the Earth spinning could be solved by putting the contact at one of the poles; it will have to be on a swivel joint to prevent it from twisting. But there's also the Earth revolving around the Sun, which requires the cable length to cycle up and down by 186 million miles every year. I guess we could use a big version of dog leash holders. Barmar (talk) 17:44, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Days before this comic was published, NASA reported issues with Voyager 1, reporting that "the probe’s attitude articulation and control system (AACS) don’t reflect what’s actually happening onboard" [1]

If they used wires and it was due to budget constraints, why not reel the Voyager probes back in and recycle the wire? 108.162.245.173 19:24, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Quick calc+google - world copper reserves are estimated at 870 million tonnes, Voyager 1 is 14,471,238,963 miles from Earth (Voyager 2 a bit closer, 12 x 10^9 miles)... a lot of unit conversions and simple arithmetics later... World copper reserves would be enough for a cable with about 4 mm^2 cross-section (2,3 mm diameter) for one of them or 2.3 mm^2 cross-section (1,7 mm diameter) cables to both. Someone check the math please, it's been a long day... 172.68.110.139 19:31, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

This is a comic worth a What-If-article. Even with zero friction extraction systems and enough available copper, there is the problem of the speed you need to send out new wire. Voyager is moving at ca. 17 km/s and Earth moves at about 30. So when Earth and Voyager move in opposite directions you have to produce *a lot* of wire per second in order to keep up with that (not exactly 47 km/s because Voyager is moving away from the ecliptic. Kimmerin (talk) 19:53, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Yes, definitely worth a What If! Randall, if you read this, please write a What If article on this! Danny E. Corchado (talk) 20:47, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Maybe this is a sly advertisement for an existing article in the forthcoming book! :) 172.70.34.105 21:24, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Voyager 1 and 2 communicate with each other, or with Earth? --172.70.126.65 20:27, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

The comic clearly shows the wire going all the way from a Voyager to Earth. Barmar (talk) 22:00, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

The explanation mentions the wire going through the Sun when we're on opposite sides of the Sun. But the Voyagers aren't traveling in the ecliptic plane, so it will probably miss the Sun. Although it still might be close enough that the heat will melt it. Barmar (talk) 22:00, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Is the whole joke of the "Alternate explanation" that they went overboard with the [citation needed]s? Barmar (talk) 22:00, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Removed this section. 172.69.33.117 23:15, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Theoretically speaking, if the copper spool were to be anchored at the North or South Pole, it would avoid issues of wraparound. 172.70.35.70 23:02, 25 May 2022 (UTC)

Now you just have to work out what happens as the conductor moves (around, but also feeds out through) the geomagnetic field. (See Electrodynamic tether, not sure if it would help or not to be anchored directly upon the maximum declanation point of the geomagnetic pole, which isn't quite at the axial pole for the purposes of rotation-mitigation 172.70.85.177 23:44, 25 May 2022 (UTC)