43 km line of sight with USB WiFi stick (2005)

Re:43 km line of sight with USB WiFi stick (2005) by jjeaff on Thursday March 03, 2022 @03:15PM (#30546277)

I would think the biggest part of being able to transmit that far is the perfect vacuum of space. There is almost nothing, not even air particles between us and the probe.

If you threw a beach ball from the distance of voyager straight to earth it would eventually make it here.

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Re:43 km line of sight with USB WiFi stick (2005) by lultimouomo on Thursday March 03, 2022 @03:20PM (#30546375)

Vacuum is good, but inverse-square law still applies.

There is almost perfect vacuum between Earth and every star in the galaxy, and yet they don't appear nearly as bright as the Sun.

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Re:43 km line of sight with USB WiFi stick (2005) by thfuran on Thursday March 03, 2022 @03:23PM (#30546427)

But you can see the Andromeda galaxy, which is several quintillion miles away.

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Re:43 km line of sight with USB WiFi stick (2005) by josephg on Thursday March 03, 2022 @04:00PM (#30546935)

Sure, but the andromeda galaxy doesn’t have a power budget of 20 watts.

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Re:43 km line of sight with USB WiFi stick (2005) by Sporktacular on Friday March 04, 2022 @06:23AM (#30553266)

Some photons would make it, just not frequently enough to ascertain any information.

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Re:43 km line of sight with USB WiFi stick (2005) by thfuran on Thursday March 03, 2022 @03:20PM (#30546377)

Well, orbital mechanics would mess up a straight toss but at least it wouldn't be stopped by air resistance.

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Re:43 km line of sight with USB WiFi stick (2005) by avar on Thursday March 03, 2022 @06:15PM (#30548378)

Jupiter might have other plans once your beach ball gets close enough.

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