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Jordyraptor1235678 t1_j7ffqvz wrote

If you get an answer reply to me so I can come back because I also want to know

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[deleted] t1_j7fgi30 wrote

They served their purpose of imaging the planets in our solar system when we didn't have close up images

I guess its more useful to send new probes to do things like image a single planet and its moons rather than sending another craft to fly past all planets

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triffid_hunter t1_j7fgv8w wrote

The first two are in good spots to look at stuff already, and there's probably not enough political will to send another similar mission with more modern sensor tech - especially when they took 50 years to get where they are now, and currently available rocket engines aren't much better than what was around in the '70s in terms of ability to propel something beyond the heliosphere.

It might make more sense when we've got nuclear rockets happening - some of those have mind-boggling Isp compared to chemical rockets, at least on paper!

Or perhaps if there's an upcoming favourable alignment of the interplanetary transport network or something..

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guy_incognito888 t1_j7fh4is wrote

because NASA would rather blow it's budget on a bloated, obsolete SLS than, ya know, EXPLORING

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NAYRarts t1_j7fh5ln wrote

We kind of have done a voyager 3. We sent the New Horizons mission to Pluto and a Kepler belt object and it is continuing to explore as it heads towards Interstellar space.

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Waddensky t1_j7fha8b wrote

What do you mean by the opposite direction? The Voyagers visited the outer planets and many missions have been sent out since then (Galileo, Cassini-Huygens, New Horizons, Juno). Here's an extensive list. They were all state-of-the-art Voyagers in a way.

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ReturnOfDaSnack420 t1_j7fhc6j wrote

The Voyager probes were able to do what they do because of a one in a century alignment which allowed them to get gravity assists and slingshot their way from each one. Orbital mechanics being what they are and the cost of bringing fuel along you have to wait until the planets are just right to do that. Now if you mean just flinging something out into the universe we've done that recently with the new horizons probe which is just now heading its way out of the solar system.

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space-ModTeam t1_j7fhqxj wrote

Hello u/Temporary-High, your submission "Why aren't we sending a state of the art Voyager 3 out?" has been removed from r/space because:

  • Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.

Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.

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fredzyN2 t1_j7fikbk wrote

Replying to NAYRarts (#1,734,917)

This, New Horizons is almost the same thing. It will take such a long time for it to get anywhere interstellarly interesting, and I'm not sure there is a whole lot else to be gleaned from deep space cruising with the newer technology. Looking more closely at the things in our back yard that we don't yet understand is generally better bang for buck than sending out fly-by probes.

One other thing, I think we're about out of Plutonium 238. That's the stuff that makes long-term deep space probes possible. It's super effective for RTG's - the radioisotope thermoelectric generators that power space craft/probes like the Voyagers. I heard they were going to start making more a while ago, not sure if that situation ever improved. Basically all the Pu238 we ever had was a byproduct of cold-war era nuclear weapons production, which thankfully ceased at the end of the cold war.

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