Voyager 1 Beyond Solar Wind 245
healeyb noted that Voyager 1 has now reached a distance from the sun where it is no longer able to detect solar wind. Launched in 1977 to get up close and personal with our solar system's gas giants, scientists estimate that in another 4 years it will cross the heliosphere.
17.5 billion kilometers (Score:5, Insightful)
17.5 billion kilometres and counting, over 3 decades spent hurtling away from from the sun, and still less than 0.05% of the way to the nearest star [wikipedia.org]
We humans are really really really small.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
We humans may be small (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sentience (Score:3, Insightful)
No, capitalism is the system most closely aligned with maximizing selfish values given the premise of scarce resources. If you violate that premise as Star Trek technology does, with its limitless fusion and anti-matter power, transporters, matter replicators, faster-than-light travel, etc then participating in capitalism may no longer be the solution that best maximizes selfish gain.
Pre-22nd century societies aren't a case in point for anything in a fictional 22nd century society.
If you can sit on your ass, not make the slightest effort, and still end up choking to death on your own wealth unless you exercise some self restraint, as a character on Star Trek would, then you need not do anything, in order to make sure you're taken care of and have whatever you want.
This is the promise (almost certainly never to be fulfilled, but nevertheless a promise) of technology.
Re:NASA Craftsmanship (Score:4, Insightful)
Has it ever occurred to you that one of the reasons why NASA missions are so expensive is because you can't just yank shit of a shelf, stuff it in a box, and hope that it works in space? Did it cross your mind that the people with the know how to correctly engineer something that can last in space for extended periods of time aren't exactly cheap?
There are no economies of scale here. Highly specialized = expensive. Highly specialized + rugged = very expensive.