They should send a powerbank up to the Voyager.
…
Yeah, that is a joke but made me wonder two things:
- Say you have the abillity to connect a powerbank to the Voyager, how long would a typical powerbank with 3x 16850 cells be able to power the probe?
- Would it be possible to build a proble like Voyager 2, which has a docking port and could accept a space craft that could transfer power to the Voyager 2?
Too cold for batteries but just for kicks; 2Ah(3x3.7V)=22.2watts. Voyagers RTG’s left earth producing about 470watts so that powerbank with 3 x 18650’s would equal about 3 minutes. Not sure what the usage is though so maybe longer, plus the RTG’s power output fades over time so probably longer again.
Ah, cool that is very interesting!
Too cold for batteries. That, and longevity, is why they used an RTG.
Yeah, I realize that, but I just thought it would be interesting to put the energy use in perspective…
Why wouldn’t you just send a new device at that point? Also Voyager is actively moving so it would be very hard to catch up to
All good points, and I fully agree with you, I just though it was funny to immagine a space probe charging from a powerbank.
Then I started wondering how a modern powerbank with modern lithium ion cells would compare to the needs of the Voyager 2 probe, and started thinking of how it could be done.
