/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Isn't Minerva still out there, doing pretty much just fine? Out in the rather exclusive company of Voyager and the Pioneers.

>>7596136

Hey, it's Hayabusa!

>>5370528

The Voyagers are off on a long journey, one that won't end even when their generators finally stop ticking in another fifteen years or so.
Think about it for a while. The average satellite only orbits for a few decades at most before breaking down. The space shuttle, which is pretty much iconic of our age, will probably be retired down to a museum specimen or two in a couple of years. The remaining preserved Saturn rockets remain in open air, exposed to the elements and the capriciousness of humanity. Not even something as distant and untouchable as our marks left on other planets lasts forever. Unless we get back up there and preserve them, even Neil Armstrong's footprints of the moon will eventually be gone.
Yet maybe hundreds or more generations after their creators' lifetime, the Voyagers will still be continuing their journey. Asleep in the silence between the stars, safely out of reach of a cruel, capricious world.

I wouldn't weep for them if I were you. But I assure you, bitter tears will be shed when Hubble closes her one weary eye.