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A comment on Voyager 1 is back online! NASA spacecraft returns data from all 4 instruments. Parent comment

Re:Voyager 1 is back online! NASA spacecraft returns data fr... by financypants on Saturday June 15, 2024 @01:09PM (#40691031)
I mentioned this point on a HN post a few months ago and someone said that the Voyager was launched at a very beneficial time, leveraging some gravitational pull of some celestial body, so it’s unlikely we can just make a faster ship and catch up/surpass it.
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Re:Voyager 1 is back online! NASA spacecraft returns data fr... by hinkley on Saturday June 15, 2024 @04:06PM (#40692350)
If I thought 17 km/s was even half of the fastest we would ever go, I’d have to give up a lot of dreams for the future. Since I’m not prepared to do so I will stick out my proverbial tongue at this assertion.
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Re:Voyager 1 is back online! NASA spacecraft returns data fr... by guidoism on Saturday June 15, 2024 @01:28PM (#40691160)
That’s just a standard chemical rocket for the initial push and then a few gravity assists right?

Couldn’t an ion engine with a nuclear reactor providing the electricity accelerate more over that period? I’m genuinely curious, I don’t know the answer.

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Re:Voyager 1 is back online! NASA spacecraft returns data fr... by Sparkyte on Saturday June 15, 2024 @02:26PM (#40691644)
Even an ion engine needs fuel. We shot out Voyager 1 in 1977. It has traversed 47 years of distance.

There has been the talk of solar sails as well, but gravity assist propulsion is already so much easier to achieve for satellites.

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Re:Voyager 1 is back online! NASA spacecraft returns data fr... by throwaway894345 on Saturday June 15, 2024 @01:21PM (#40691110)
Is there any reason that a new generation of ships couldn't leverage the same (or similar, if not better) gravitational pulls that benefited Voyager?
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Re:Voyager 1 is back online! NASA spacecraft returns data fr... by Rebelgecko on Saturday June 15, 2024 @01:41PM (#40691273)
The "Grand Tour" alignment that Voyagers were initially intended to take advantage of only happens once every 175 years (although if the goal is just max speed I don't know if favorable conditions happen more often than that)
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