Forgotten, but not always gone: the various fates of planetary probes

 

Pictured: an artist’s depiction of Voyager 1, also known as one of the lucky ones. Sometime around 2025, however, it(s power supply) too shall come to pass, and it will die a free probe – more on that later. Source

Bad news: your favorite space probe has been deactivated or worse – its power ran out. What’s the next step? For us as humans, tears for what we’ve lost but ultimately, hope – as long as the government (or Elon Musk) cares, more things will be shot into space. For the space probe, well, that can depend on the mission. There are three main fates for wayward probes: orbit, impact, and jailbreak escape from the solar system.

Orbit

By and large, the primary fate which space probes meet (other than failure to escape the Earth’s gravity – I’m looking at you, early Soviet probes and no-longer-early Russian probes) is that of orbit, be it around the Sun or around other solar system objects. However, probes orbiting other planets or moons will eventually…

Impact

The same civilization which derives viewing pleasure from this also has no qualms about crashing some of its most sophisticated technological achievements into other planets. While all artificial objects in orbit around planets or moons will fall eventually, sometimes we take matters into our own hands by smashing probes into comets or even the moon – for the sake of knowledge, of course! But although impact is certainly more glamorous than a slow death orbiting the Sun, it can’t hold a candle to…

Escape!

Among all the objects mankind has ever constructed, from Lamborghinis to Pintos, from Yeezys to your dad’s flip-flops, only one has escaped (the oppression of) our solar system: the Voyager 1 probe, which was launched on 5 September 1976 and is still somehow transmitting data back to Earth. Also on the way out of the solar system (but not quite out yet) are two derelict Pioneer probes (10 and 11), launched in 1972, Voyager 2 (also launched in 1976), and the New Horizons spacecraft, which was launched in 2006, in addition to four rocket boosters and two counterweights from New Horizons. The Voyager craft and Pioneer craft each carry messages to any extra terrestrial life that may encounter the probes in the future. Below is a video about Voyager 1 crossing into interstellar space.

 

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Objects escaping the solar system