I have so many questions about what just happened with Voyager 2. But let's review:

On August 20, 1977, Voyager 2 was launched from Earth.

In December 1977, it entered the asteroid belt.

In June 1978, its main radio receiver failed. Since then it's been using the backup receiver!

On July 9, 1979, it flew past many of Jupiter's moons, made its closest approach to Jupiter, and took tons of beautiful pictures.

On August 26, 1981 it shot past Saturn and took tons of beautiful pictures.

On August 25, 1989 it shot past Neptune and took tons of beautiful pictures.

On November 5, 2018 it crossed the heliopause and entered interstellar space, 120 times farther from the Sun than we are.

On July 18, 2023, it overtook Pioneer 10 and became the second farthest man-made object from the Sun.

3 days later, some idiot sent a command that pointed its high gain antenna 2 degrees away from Earth. HOW EXACTLY DID THIS HAPPEN?

On August 4, 2023, NASA used its most high-powered transmitter to successfully command Voyager 2 to reorient towards Earth, resuming communications. HOW WAS THAT POSSIBLE?

Voyager 2 is now 133 AU away. How can you "shout" across such a distance and attract the attention of someone who is not looking in your direction? That's very far. It takes light about 18 hours to travel that far.

@johncarlosbaez

"In December 1977, it entered the asteroid belt."

... and **survived** !!

(yeah, I know; too many viewings of The Empire Strikes Back. shoot me now.)

(I was nearly today years old when I learned the total mass of the asteroid belt is less than Earth's moon. Sorry, James Hogan and whoever else wrote stories about there being a planet there that [somehow] blew up however many million years ago...)

@wrog - I hate all SF shows that depict asteroid belts as thick with mountain-sized rocks. Some recent Star Trek episodes do it too. The majesty of space is the majesty of something very dark and empty.

@johncarlosbaez

Auto5-star review from me for first movie with The Scene:


ALICE: Entering asteroid belt in 5 .. 4 ..

BOB [exasperated]: We're doing this *again*?

CAROL [mock terror]: Oh, noooooo!!!!

ALICE: .. 2 .. 1 .. Contact! [toggles switch]

[music: dramatic sting]

ALICE [with reverb:] "Attention all hands! We are now **in the asteroid belt**. [toggles it back]

CAROL [more mock terror]: We're all going to **die**!

[cut to ship exterior with Sun + total blackness. Camera zooms out really far. Absolutely *nothing* *else* there.]

[Music sputters into silence.]

BOB: That was funny maybe the first two times.

CAROL: Buzz kill.

DANA [over intercom]: Fuck you guys. I was *sleeping*.

BOB: Happy now?

@johncarlosbaez

CAROL [looking at display]: Uh oh, proximity alert!

ALICE: What is it?

CAROL: Dense, nickel-iron body, about a million klicks out.

ALICE: Prepare for *evasive action*!

CAROL: It's maybe 2 micrograms.

[BOB rolls his eyes]

CAROL: Actually, it's already going to miss us by at least ten thousand klicks.

ALICE: Yay! That was easy.

BOB: Are we done yet?

ALICE: Yeah, I guess.

@wrog @johncarlosbaez

I was going to add something like:

"camera keeps panning back,further and further until eventually the ship is a dot, before one dinky rock comes into view, slowly rolling by"

But this is much better.

@wrog @johncarlosbaez Bonus points if their dialogue is encrypted.

@johncarlosbaez @wrog Elite Dangerous (game) keeps the pretty rocks by putting you in planetary rings instead! There are "belt clusters" but even they are sparse.

...But it's a whole game about the dark empty void.