Scientists: It’s do or die time for America’s primacy exploring the Solar System. “When you turn off those spacecraft’s radio receivers, there’s no way to turn them back on.”
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/09/scientists-its-do-or-die-time-for-americas-primacy-exploring-the-solar-system/
12 Comments
Voyager II has been out there so long now — they really need to just keep it running longer.
The further out into space you get, the sillier it feels to talk about the “primacy” of individual nations.
On the scale of the solar system, squabbles over fractions of our pale blue dot seem pointless.
America: be sensible, or you will gut what you paid for.
Could other countries buy them off the US if they don’t want to continue running them?
So can someone tell me if it actively costs money to just NOT turn them off? And if so how much? Cause if not, I feel like just shutting down the Earth-end stuff in a way that can be reversed and reporting that you shut them off would be the easiest way to deal with this nonsense.
Another thing ruined by conservatives. Exhausting
We’re done. I’m telling EVERY smart young person I meet to make it a priority to get out of the country soon, and permanently. Don’t wait, because other decent countries only have so much room, no matter how smart you are.
Every stupid young person I meet, I’m fine with them staying here.
Oh yeah, that’s totally what I’m worried about! Not the loss to all of human scientific knowledge by having one less country exploring space, but the hit to our ability to do barely disguised Cold War dickwagging. Oh noes, the perfidious Chinaman might beat “the Land of the Free” to the Moon!!!
My opinion, solar exploration is the gateway to understanding our universe. Gutting projects aimed at doing so are truly heartbreaking.
the US already lost its space primacy, they just haven’t felt it yet. in a decade or two when current investments start to pay off, it’ll become obvious.
But if they stay on then there isn’t any reason to pay spacex to launch new satellites.
We are Pakleds, we cannot make things go, we are not smart