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In November 2026, A Human-Made Object Will Reach A Light-Day From Earth For First Time In History
(www.iflscience.com)
A community to discuss space & astronomy through a STEM lens
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Someone stated that the communication speed is currently about 160 bits per second, so 20 bytes per second.
Voyager is now 1 light day away, so the signal is 86400 seconds long, since radio waves travel at the speed of light. The signal can then fit a backup of 1.7 megabytes.
20 bytes x 86400 seconds = 1.7 Mb (SI units)
This is enough to fit the entire memory bank of 26 Commodore 64s in a one way trip from the Earth to Voyager. If Voyager then returns the signal, you can simply double this.
So about 2 floppy discs. ๐พ ๐พ
That rocks! Thanks for doing that math.