Comment by yawpitch
I think it literally every day… and with literally every day the odds of our surpassing ourselves on this one gets, again very literally, further away.
I think it literally every day… and with literally every day the odds of our surpassing ourselves on this one gets, again very literally, further away.
You’re assuming we, as a species, have the wherewithal, resources, and attention span necessary to both try again and try to surpass.
We haven’t even set another foot on the moon during my lifetime, and we’re not factually any closer to doing so. We have allowed a military industrial complex to keep making money by over-designing and under-delivering over and over and over for a population with constantly dwindling wherewithal, resources, and attention span.
I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist, I am a realist… and the real odds decrease with every passing moment.
We keep sending out probes. Another fast one gets cheaper over time, even. One random billionaire or less could fund one.
The odds are pretty damn flat.
If we launched today, 1% faster would be enough.
If we launched in a hundred years, 1% faster would be enough.
And going faster is downright easy. We can beat Voyager's speed significantly any time we want (plus or minus ten years for planetary alignment).