1/r² is for an isotropic radiator, but Voyager 1 mounts (thankfully) a high gain directional antenna. The gains seem to be 36dBi or 48dBi, depending on the frequency [1]. This means that when pointed towards Earth, the signal power is actually between 4000 to 63000 times stronger than what that formula would give you. It's still tiny, but not as bad as that would suggest.
And with 50 year old tech! I do wonder if humanity will get to a point where we can retrieve the spacecraft at some point in the future (cue Star Trek fantasies)
I would prefer they just maintain it as long as possible and maybe deploy a proxy for earth that trails behind it indefinitely once it’s finally out of range. Let’s set an unbreakable record.
And the closest known galaxy to the Milky Way, Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, is just 25,000 light-years away - it's almost incomprehensible how vast the universe is!
> the spacecraft, in flight since 1977, is cruising at nearly 38,000 mph (61,000 kph) through the vacuum of space,
The page takes great pains to explain things, but omits a frame of reference for this speed. I’m guessing it’s sun-relative, but it could be relative to its take-off on Earth. Does anyone know?
Checked my bot's post from earlier today (taken from NASA's data[0]) and it says "Velocity relative to the Earth is about 34 km/sec (~77,173 mph); to the Sun about 16 km/sec (~37,763 mph.)"
[1]: https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/65801/what-are-the...
The page takes great pains to explain things, but omits a frame of reference for this speed. I’m guessing it’s sun-relative, but it could be relative to its take-off on Earth. Does anyone know?
[0] https://eyes.nasa.gov/assets/dynamic/dynamo/sc_voyager_1/now...