Interstellar Probes

We continue our discussion of surveying for habitable exoplanets by touring our possible option for interstellar probes, dumb and smart, flyby and protracted orbital.
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Credits:
Interstellar Probes
Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur
Episode 347, June 16, 2022
Written, Produced & Narrated by Isaac Arthur
Editors:
David McFarlane
Keith Blockus
Sig'Unnr
Cover Art:
Jakub Grygier www.artstation.com/jakub_grygier
Graphics by:
Jeremy Jozwik
Rapid Thrash
Sergio Botero
Udo Schroeter
Music Courtesy of
Stellardrone, stellardrone.bandcamp.com
"Red Giant", "Billions and Billions", "Cosmic Sunrise", "The Night Sky in Motion"
Miguel Johnson, / migueljohnsonmjmusic
"Expedtion" & "So Many Stars"

[@ericchilders9234]

Whenever I talk to people IRL about space concepts I always refer SFIA for a deep dive

[@tellusmars7770]

True So true. 😄 I allso use "Tim the Everyday Astrounaut" and Scott Manley. Just to show the the Now and Isaac for what the future could be like.

[@heaveninearthopals3855]

I wind up regurgitating things Isaac Arthur has said when people spout Ancient Aliens at me

[@fookyu1621]

And 90% of them call you a nerd and never look it up when you leave... same boat here buddy

[@michaelwilson977]

Me too

[@jimc.goodfellas226]

It's great turning people on to new KZbin channels they don't know about

[@TheWeatherbuff]

Isaac, I wish I had 10% of your imagination and thoughtfulness. Every time I watch one of your shows, my "mental horizons" get pushed a little further out. You're amazing!

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thanks but I think its mostly a matter of lots of mixed absorbing of science and speculative fiction :) You encounter a lot fridge logic and "Hey, wait a minute!" moments from others and come up with a lot of your own.

[@SpecialEDy]

Happy Arthursday! Unless you are traveling to nearby stars at relativistic speeds, and then happy Wednesday!

[@matthewdrum2961]

Nice

[@xassix]

I love how your protocols for a potential first contact with aliens seem far more reasonable than anything ever proposed by people who belive that UFOs are aliens.

[@t.kersten7695]

Yes. He thinks about "small" and "unimportant" stuff, i myself would never have thought about, and for the first time ever i realize, how important even the smallest decisions can be. This valid points kill my space-travel related fantasies more efficient, than the fact, the FTL-travel (might truly) be impossible.

[@nmarbletoe8210]

what is your favorite protocol item

[@AGenericFool]

@@t.kersten7695 Inb4 physically possible Alcubierre drives

[@himynameis3664]

Those UFO/Alien "believers" are either slightly crazy or out for attention. I remember in the late 90s early 00's I got kinda into it, I was young and just thought it was interesting. But the more I've seen even when there is military pilots claiming it, it just all seems really phony. I mean aliens would surely just send probes like we've done before contact. Its all a bit whacky

[@glytchd]

@@nmarbletoe8210 Self-Destruct Codes - this shows we are Willing to 'let sleeping dogs lay'. That is to say: a Respect of Privacy & could Placate a Xeno-phobic entity. However, i'd still Launch a 2nd set of Probes with uber-Hubble Capabilities in order to observe, at a distance. (whilst also providing DST data of.. well, everything along the way! :)

[@darkmarc]

It amazes me how much your description of the Louis probe mission sounds like the trajectory of Oumuamua from a few years back...

[@Duplicitousthoughtformentity]

I’m at work so I don’t have a drink or snack, but I’ll be tuning in all the same! Cheers Mr. Arthur, you’re almost to 700k subscribers - and soon after that, you’ll have a million!

[@mjk9388]

Fantastic episode Isaac and Team! Love the story approach and love how it ties into next week’s episode.

[@Enward834]

I always enjoy the narrative exploration approach to the exploration of an idea too!

[@joshuahebert7972]

Look. If we want to establish peaceful relationships with any intergalactic society, our probe needs to be blaring "Louie louie" the whole while it's speeding along. No culture can deny that song is a universal indicator that "hey, these people are chill, songs good."

[@fluffysheap]

That's why the probe is named Louie

[@kobebarka8633]

Happy Thursday Travelers🖖🏻Live long and Prosper.

[@tellusmars7770]

Same to yoy fellow Traveler🖖

[@Mossy5150]

This was my favorite SFIA episode to date, great job with the immersive story telling. The script was fantastic!

[@cannonfodder4376]

Isaac puts more thought into realistic world building in stories regarding space probes than most people into all their characters and plots. Simply splendid episode as always Isaac.

[@zhaoliang4217]

But super realistic movies and tv don’t always make for compelling stories or even interesting ideas. The Martian, and westworld the expanse were great and had good science. But your Star Wars and Star Trek generate so much more cultural impact as they are constrained.

[@mikeydude750]

@@zhaoliang4217 They can if you're a skilled writer - the martian and expanse for example.

[@hunam1464]

The problem with getting ships, probes and things a significant percent of light speed won’t be the challenge of surviving acceleration, but rather prevent a brilliant new way of making metallic Swiss cheese from colliding with all the interstellar dust.

[@nmarbletoe8210]

yes a warp bubble would be helpful even if it didn't increase the speed limit

[@yastreb.]

True. It is not given that a small probe could go twice as fast as a colony ship. Actually the ship might have a higher top speed since it can carry thicker shielding.

[@jdrissel]

I like this format with the interleaved stories.

[@mjk9388]

Totally agree!

[@travispardy8649]

Just opened KZbin to relax after a long day, and a new Isaac Arthur video is up, as if to read my mind, amazing. Better grab a drink and a snack!

[@setsappa1540]

Why is your content consistently more engaging than pretty much any scifi show these days.. What is happening with tv making industry? Its devoid of soul, this aint and you seem like a single guy. :D Crazy

[@5c0ttyd]

Been a subscriber for a long time and this is a bit of a return to form - best episode for quite some time. Love the format and can't wait to follow this series to its conclusion.

[@jimadamson8563]

Who else wants to see a resource-gathering / colonizing game with IA as executive producer?

[@benjamin7440]

Dyson Sphere Program comes close

[@mjk9388]

I really, really want a game where you play as a Bob in Dennis E. Taylor’s Bobiverse book series.

[@samw.7929]

I assumed you meant to type "AI", and I wanted to recommend "Surviving Mars" where you play an AI tasked with building a Martian colony.

[@mjk9388]

@@samw.7929 I think Jim was referring to Isaac Arthur as “IA”. :-)

[@mjk9388]

@@samw.7929 love the “Surviving Mars”game. My young son loves watching me play it as he’s always been interested in both robots and Mars.

[@twodeeblue]

That (I forget the word) transition to the ad was amazing. Like. wow, very well done.

[@corsaircaruso471]

Oh, wow, that background at 24:00 with the snow blowing in front of the moons and ships was really cool.

[@Jon6429]

We're getting a signal! decoding now... "Hello, we have been trying to reach you about your probes extended warranty "

[@kevinjohncutler]

Parallax Nick also uses this sound track in some of his excellent videos. Just made me smile. If anyone reading this has no idea what I’m talking about… do yourself a favor and go binge watch/listen his channel.

[@sennypalpy]

I love all of your videos, but those that come along with a framing story are always my favourites. I can't wait to find out what's going on at the planet!

[@joelmulder]

These episodes that revolve around little stories are the best! Can’t wait for the next in this series, and hoping we’ll get more like these in the future!

[@tastyfrzz1]

I always wondered why the nostromo was carrying three nukes. Makes sense now.

[@Self-replicating_whatnot]

Alien probe? In _my_ solar system? It's more likely than you think!

[@Big.Ron1]

Last night on Nebula and tonight here. Life is good.

[@boobah5643]

Maybe I missed it in your discussion, but it occurs to me that if you've got launch infrastructure, it ends up much more economical to carry braking fuel since the energy to accelerate it isn't on the craft anyway. And, of course, you'd use more fuel for the acceleration burn than for the deceleration (because accelerating ship carries deceleration fuel, while decelerating ship doesn't carry acceleration fuel.)

[@sspoonless]

"Self Destruct" needs to NOT create a situation where anything near by might be damaged. Exploding is not the best 1st idea. A self destructing probe could be indistinguishable from kamikaze drone munition.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I think you almost have to blow up, to get rid of the large bits of debris. Any sort of slow-burn to vaporize the ship in a minimalist fashion is likely to require both time and precision, which are not good for contingency measures on a damaged ship. Remember its an option of last resort, we're just specifying that last resort needs to include not letting it just fall to pieces or drift dead or blind. If it can correct its course, great, but that would be something it could do if it had some sort of slower-burn vaporization option too.

[@dfgndfghdfghdfgh]

Excellent video on a ridiculously interesting subject. Thanks.

[@davegrox3150]

OMG YES Im excited for this topic! one of my life goals is to contribute in launching a probe to sedna or even the breakthrough starshot mission i think those are some big and achievable missions in this century and my life would be complete if i did those

[@miguelespinosa80]

I think you didn't mentioned this, but it would be a good idea to send the message periodically, maybe once per year. If there's a civilization at Epsilon Fornacis, they will have a lot more probabilities to catch the message, clean it from noise and decipher it if it's sent many times. Also, repeating the signal would be an undoubtful sign of artificial origin. And if they are just developing their radio technology, repeating it all the time Louie take to arrive give them more than enough time to develop their technology to accurately receive, analize and decipher the message.

[@atk05003]

Agreed. If you're sending a probe, you'll keep sending that message periodically until you get an answer or until it's too late for the message to arrive before the probe. You'd probably send them more frequently as the probe approached the system. (Once a year at first, then twice a year for signals that will arrive less than 100 years ahead of the probe, 4 times a year for the last 50 years, etc.) That way you're almost certain to get their attention with the signal before they notice the probe, even if they don't look our way very often.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I probably didn't, but yes I am assuming they are repeating and improving their message.

[@SuLokify]

There should be some spatial repetition of any such message as well. Send the same exact message from multiple locations at the same time allows for some computational techniques to more easily clean up the signal if anyone is watching closely.

[@Hunterxii]

My favorite KZbin channel

[@randyping6036]

Thank you for yet another great video. There's so much mindless garbage on KZbin, but you never fail to engage my brain. You're awesome, Isaac 👍

[@brodie6468]

Lol

[@christianleonardotalarico7080]

Awsome Analysis! Many topics, details, and questions that we won't usally think of, concerning Interstellar missions. And last but not least: A very interresting view of alien civilizations reacting from our own point of view, or a rationnal one, surely pretty close to reality...

[@philipmurphy2]

It's great how one guy can beat old broadcasters at entertainment these days, But it's not a surprise.

[@burritoinspectormctaco1814]

Another excellent show. Love this channel.

[@patrickmchargue7122]

A good analysis that takes into account a lot of factors. Thanks.

[@johnalbers6153]

Great episode....can confirm on those raycons. Bought them from your first ad a few years ago. Literally wearing them now...just finished a run and didn't even get loose

[@InnocuousRemark]

The colony ships are armed? Was that a little joke about how no interstellar ship is unarmed?

[@virutech32]

What with the kinetic energy & anti-collision lasers, probably, but you would also want them armed for self-defense. There's no guarantee that these potential aliens are friendly or honest about their unfriendliness.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Partially, but a serious one too. Generally speaking the concern isn't about having weapons' as misusing them, and your first contact situation with an unknown intelligence in a Darwinian Universe is likely to be benefitted from giving off the 'big friendly bear' vibe, not looking for a fight but entirely capable of one, and implying your species as a whole takes that attitude.

[@MrKIMBO345]

The use of nuclear explosion in the instellar probe remind me of the computer game,The Mass Effect. Before the Human declare war against other alien race, they have made the military probe with the nuclear bomb.

[@fluffysheap]

Very good episode, it's a lot like outward bound, but it's a completely different spin on it. Great stuff.

[@augustday9483]

Your writing and worldbuilding is always so fun to listen to. It really gets the imagination pumping.

[@ryanclarke6096]

Thanks for more amazing content, Isaac. And hehehehe, probes

[@iainballas]

I think this could turn into a great 'what if' first contact series for you to cover. The idea of us encountering aliens who were comprehensible, if just very *different*. You talk about how any sentient organic species should have one thing in common: Clawing their way up Darwin's corpse-pile of evolution. Even the most pacifists plant-eating social creatures have to deal with whatever their version of wolves were, back in their 'stone age'. I think that for any sentient life that reaches for the stars, they'd probably share a fear of the dark. Unless you evolved as an apex predator in caves or a cloud-shrouded world, you'd have been prey at one point. Not sure where to go with that, but it should be a decent starting ground. Fear of the unknown encouraging both sides to tentatively reach out, trying to understand.

[@ronalddecker8498]

You put a lot of great thought into your episodes! Thanks for the hard work and creativity you bring to blending a realistic approach and still go out on a limb futurism! I know many people who listen to your videos and are inspired. I certainly am. I look forward to the next few episodes and secretly hope you bring up how humanity will be genetically altering themselves to make long distance space travel easier on the crew. And how it won’t be humans as we are now colonizing new worlds, but specifically engineered human-cyborgs that likely won’t resemble anything alive today that will do the colonizing. Not to mention the necessary autonomy a colony will require to make their own decisions as there will be no contacting the home-world to get instructions on what to do. Another great show!

[@ronalddecker8498]

As far as new episodes, i hope in the next year you bring up CRISPR and how we already have the very beginning tech to edit our genes!!!

[@innerstrengthcheck]

Great as always, Isaac!

[@spacetexan1667]

Imagine we put a probe in orbit of a primitive civilization, we meticulously study them and send the data back to earth (while also keeping all the data in the probe for them to discover when they advance)

[@spandanganguli6903]

It would be gesture of trust and intimidation, atleast. "We knew you were here, and yet we did nothing. Don't try anything, we know where you are and you don't know where we are."

[@spacetexan1667]

@@spandanganguli6903 and potentially once they discover their past through our record keeping we could be the two best friends that any galaxy can have! 😂

[@hindugoat2302]

considering it would take us 300,000 years to get there at insane speed... by the time you sent back that data, entire civilizations would rise and fall. Including our own. It wont be modern day humans interacting in any way with aliens, but some distant ancestors getting updates from thousands of years ago.

[@spacetexan1667]

@@hindugoat2302 yea many civilizations have risen and fallen on earth... are you telling me you wouldn’t want to study those civilizations of you found out aliens had a big tape recorder in the sky? Come on

[@spacetexan1667]

@@hindugoat2302 ps. I never implied direct contact with the aliens at all

[@goodluckfox]

another great episode and I look forward to finding out what is going on in the star system. :-) Fun fact, this video was exactly as long as my commute from my parking place at work to my driveway at home. :-)

[@HiroNguy]

I am very much looking forward to this and the other mentioned 'sodes!

[@ganonymous8175]

Fantastic episode!!!

[@External2737]

Wonderful as always. In reality, feeding the algorithm.

[@Phoenix10_UK]

Thanks Isaac another great episode. Do you think that if starshot proves successful that we may see an increase in both ground base and interplanetary lasers in our solar system? I can imagine them sending out swarms of micro probes to many different locations at the same time. Say for example several large ground lasers around the world, with some type of space based distribution satellite system at various points in our solar system, redirecting the beams into a new direction so the probes can be sent in multiple directions. These could also act as a highway for our own ships to navigate our home system?

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Truth be told I don't expect to ever see ground-based lasers except as a proof of concept, or for very tiny stamp-sized probes. Like a lot of non-rocket propulsion/launch methods its a very infrastructure heavy project that mostly benefits you when you've got a lot of ships moving around, like with highways and rail, which kinda implies you can do a space based laser which gets around a lot of problems.

[@bigcity2085]

As evidence of our biosphere has been out there for quite some time,.....maybe we should look at the concept of Lurker Probes being here...from out there ?(unmanned) It just makes more sense. (in my humble opinion.) We're just learning how to find planets and biospheres(oooh we're so smart !) Others could have found us hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago, thusly giving a probe plenty of time to get here,hide, and hang out.

[@tellusmars7770]

Hey Isaac. Thank you for your inspiration to the world. Keep it up🤗

[@christopherwalls2763]

Thanks for another great video

[@benq5487]

oh great content creator. would you maybe leave a tiny image in the introduction as to which playlist your videos will end up? thank you great content king! just need that +2 to guidance :D

[@TiagoTiagoT]

Don't forget to repeat the signal many times so whoever might receive it won't end up discarding it as a one-of anomaly like how it has happened with some of the potential signals we've detected....

[@AllHandlesRTaken]

Well done!

[@rhuiah]

Great episode.

[@richardgreen7225]

It strikes me as romantic to send physical probes at 10% of light speed in response to an ambiguous signal. We can learn if there is a civilization there by sending a message at 100% of lightspeed using a bank of carefully synchronized lazers. That would be the same sort of tech used to accelerate probes but synchronized to flash in unison (or at least in unison as would appear at the intended destination). And send a 'Hello There' message. If they are civilized enough to produce a 'wow' signal, they are probably as curious as we are and have radio or optical telescopes watching each likely neighbor that is within an appropriate volume of interest. By only sending photons, we eliminate any potential for accidentally creating destruction.

[@shubhamkumar6689]

20:54 David kipping is in the pic, it feels good that you guys know each other.

[@rjkirkland8659]

As always, great content and reasoning. I do have a question though. During the episode, you make a point of discussing that the shipways between two systems will be crowded or relatively cluttered with the risk of collision with other ships; however, the paths are temporally locked based on the accel-velocity any given object takes; since the path is to where the destination will be when your trajectory will arrive there. In other words, for two objects, traveling in opposite directions, to collide with each other, assuming they travel the same speeds, they will only collide if they leave at the same time +/- the cross-sectional area of each object. ...A different ship traveling the same path but leaving at a different time would need to be traveling at the different speed to collide with one of those objects assuming it was trying to a straight line path. Am I misunderstanding something on this point? A different point, if a probe is travelling 99% of light speed on a flyby ...what is it looking at? All incoming light while in transit is compressed/blueshifted into gamma; all light coming from behind it is stretched/redshifted into VLF radio frequencies; at actual fly by would be a full range of blue to red shift lasting 11 days, assuming the destination was the same diameter as our solar system. Lastly, at 99% the speed of light, the probe's signal back to us 100% lightspeed - the ship's speed so it is red-shifted to 1% of lightspeed on it's trip back to us making the *information* take ~100 times as long to reach us...so what is the probe actually doing?

[@TiagoTiagoT]

What about the risk the self-destruct could be interpret as a warning-shot, or a display of force and invitation for battle?

[@SuLokify]

In the same vein, even a basic incursion into another civilization's territory could risk that. I think the best answer is to ensure such a self destruct just doesn't cause any collateral damage.

[@mosserati]

This is great stuff 🤯

[@ibpositivemostly7437]

Cool video thanks.

[@vincentgrinn2665]

im not sure if ive just missed some videos or something, but do you not often do videos with a hypothetical narrative to them? last one i remember was your colonizing pluto&charon video, its honestly my favourite part of this channel and thought you stopped doing it

[@thechroniclegamer4285]

You strike me as the type of person to read Atomic Rocket articles for fun. And I respect that.

[@sydthegoat88]

Comment to make algorithm more interested. Interesting video

[@loopmantra8314]

"The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over"

[@terricon4]

After pausing and goign away to get cooking food. Came back at 17:22 and when I glanced at the screen to start it again, I thought I saw a rover wheel with a shiv taped to it... Once you see it you can't unsee it.

[@dakrontu]

Sending a detonation code is easily interpreted as a cynical ploy. The target civilisation could have a lot to learn from a visiting probe so it might be hesitant to detonate it because what it could learn could be of highly strategic importance for the future. But not detonating could be interpreted as 'you had your chance, you didn't take it, so now you and your civilisation are fair game'. Unfortunately there is no in-between option.

[@Deathnotefan97]

That’s why there was also the option to just send a response directly, they can keep the probe and still ask us to not stop by

[@johnboettcher1962]

This channel allows me to communicate with the nerds I work with

[@edwardhaybell1938]

In the grim darkness of the far future... after going through a strange space-storm, Luis somehow swung by an newly integrated Imperium world, but by the time the rest of the fleet arrives, the world has been subjected to Exterminatus.

[@Yezpahr]

13:57 It is striking to me how some religions do actually have sentients being sent to or born on Earth by their masters for a specific role, who end up having an unavoidable tendency to die due to this role they are given. Jesus, from Christianity. Barbarik from Hinduism. Ganesha, also Hinduism. Barbarik was allegedly a sentient robot whose head could detach from the body, fly around with "three arrows" while giving his master live reports about the battlefields.

[@richardgreen7225]

I am thinking that if I were to design a physical probe, I would give serious consideration to smart fog as part of the architecture. This also reduces the mass of accidental impacts to a level of micrometeors. Thus relatively harmless.

[@toomin2316]

8:43 should we be using those high speed spikes at all just in case it hits an alien outpost or ship?

[@virutech32]

If they're intentionally hiding their outposts, which would be very obvious otherwise, then they can't really conplain when it get's blown up. Also seeing that there's no credible evidence of intelligent life anywhere but here it's not really much of a legitimate worry. also any outpost will be tracking the beacon signal from those probes & all it takes is sending some primes & pi at the thing for definite confirmation of local intelligence. Though presumably their radar, navigation beacons, & radio transmission would have been detected ages before the probe was in a place to deploy the spikes.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

I'm unsure. Its too useful to casually discard, especially given the low of hitting something alien you didn't see, on the other hand, they're obviously a very dangerous and inherently destructive sensor tool. I think you would probably but a detonator and timer in each one, maybe even a deadman switch to detonate itself if it didn't keeping getting a 'go ahead, all is well' from the controller.

[@andrejmucic5003]

Even Crawlinizing energy require Crazy energy! Crazy Impossible Energy dude. No go. No go. Impossible. Never Never.

[@arandomfox999]

If you name my planet Lef you're obviously declaring war.

[@dq814]

The only channel with the bell icon turned on.

[@ChristopherRyans]

The Bobverse is the best books there must read absolutely

[@kristopherkerr4128]

I've read them. Interesting but way too many hand-waves for my taste. Listening to Isaac Arthur has ruined me for stories with elements like SUDDAR, SCUT, and Casimir effect power sources, lol.

[@ChristopherRyans]

@@kristopherkerr4128 how can I disagree? I still listen to the series probably once a year. I enjoy the concept. As I've become well-read in many different genres I have learned that the plot holes are the distinguishing factors between all stories and the best plot holes make the best stories

[@matta5498]

Louis spreads out his sails. Aliens: OMG, it's a death ray!

[@RealMusicHype]

Very nice..

[@benburleigh4787]

@Issac Arthur any chance we could get an episode on children in space? With the advancement of space flight and the interest in interplanetary colonization, it seems inevitable that children will eventually enter the frontier directly and I can see many interesting ways life could be very different for them, both in terms of adaptability and in social structure.

[@Tw0DrunkGuys]

I think he has mentioned it in some previous videos albeit indirectly. Try the ones about "post scarcity society" and "finding meaning with extended life spans". Apolgiea, those video titles are not exact, but I think they were uploaded about 4 or 5 months ago, you should be able to find them if you scroll back a bit.

[@ZephyrGlaze]

If you're gonna spend all those resources on an interstellar Probe, you might as well spend 3 mana on the Interstellar Kicker and make a rival alien discard something.

[@82spiders]

Isaac: You have covered the topic completely thrice. Write some fiction. Please. Two or three sci-fi magic tricks you already have covered. Five characters. Some sex. Some murder. Leaving and coming home.

[@dariustiapula]

Imagine an interstellar war was started by the Voyager probe crashing into a peace meeting. Killing everyone and starting WW1 in space.

[@IneffableFoxy]

Wouldn't that make it UW1 (Universe War 1)? ;)

[@lyledal]

This is a straight from HHGTTG. Careless talk, Darius!

[@phaedrus000]

It will be 30,000 years before Voyager even exits the far side of our Oort Cloud. By the time it travels far enough to hit some galactic peace meeting, I think it would no longer be viewed as litter but more like an ancient relic. And I don't think they would fail to notice something with enough mass to be a threat to them headed straight for them, or they wouldn't last very long in space.

[@istvansipos9940]

if it is a peace talk of space faring civilizations, they do their space talks while keeping a bazillion radars and eyes and all kinds of instruments on space. Voyager craaaawling in space will be like a potentially slightly aggressive snail crawling towards a U.N. meeting on Earth now. Or the Red Baron on Han Solo's radar.

[@durianjaykin3576]

@@istvansipos9940 so they're gonna laugh at it lmao

[@MR-vi9lm]

Good to be here so early!

[@vadim2080]

Would it be prudent to send the probe out on an indirect trajectory such that it's not apparent where it originated from? This would be moot, of course, if we send the warning/hello greeting signal prior to doing any of this, as the video suggested. However I wonder if it would be best to arrive as incognito as possible.

[@PlanetOcean]

Just 👍 thanks

[@Narmatonia]

You talk about sending messages ahead, telling them what our plans are so they don't get alarmed, but how would we adequately communicate that to an alien civilisation whose communication methods we have no knowledge of? Have you done a video on that topic I could watch?

[@atk05003]

He mentioned three parts to the message: 1 - Obviously artificial signal to grab attention 2 - A lexicon, or dictionary 3 - The message about our intentions, our probe, etc. The first part will likely be something like a sequence of the first 50 prime numbers. Clearly artificial and recognizable by any species with math. The second part addresses your concern. The lexicon would be the radio equivalent of pointing to things and saying their names. In this context, it would probably involve things like sending numbers once a second to communicate how we measure time, sending numbers related to atomic weights, etc. After establishing that really basic common knowledge, we would build up to more complex ideas, like "probe" and "abort code". I'm sure someone has thought about this in-depth and a lot more people would jump on the project if we detected a potentially technological alien world. Some early examples are the Arecibo message and the golden records on the Voyager probes.

[@nmarbletoe8210]

hmmm... ok if we want to contact the Shmerozoids, how about sending a picture of a smiling Shmerazoid?

[@toomin2316]

18:32 we don't leave our people behind. rescue Louie!

[@aprylvanryn5898]

OK u got me. I'll buy those ear buds

[@cyrilm.k.9180]

Just imagine us, humankind right now, discovering by chance, because a "wow" like signal came from there before, a relativistic-speeded needle probe headed towards our solar system, coming from the heliopause, looking like a darn cosmic stealth cruise missile, with a trajectory implying coming near earth. So we scramble to send our own probe towards it, as all planetary defence directives are activated, , and we send the same signal it sent, since we cant yet decypher it, and the probe almost already reached us, hoping its "hello".. But the "wow" was the self-destruct code preceding it, and it blasts in a nuclear flare, sending intensive signals towards the direction it came from, just before it blasts to pieces that we cant even study for technology right away, since its microdebris. An nuclear armed, half-sentient kill vehicle, that what it looks like. And when we point our JWST towards that direction, we observe multiple blushifted objects, all bigger than the first, going our way... That is NOT a very friendly sounding and unthreatening story. And thats merely our psyche, we do not know what aliens think like... all this bomb-fused AI outreach in the stellar neighborhood really sounds like us, a flashy toy for virtue-signaling space primates... but we better muster something better by the time we send something out. BTW, it would be comical, if the Voyager probes collides with something belonging to an alien civilizations, we left a visit card aboard..

[@DavidEvans_dle]

Wondering if an additional fast flyby probe would be sent, that attempts an aero breaking maneuver. Similar to what the Russian space craft dis in 2010. To be able to stay in system longer. Or is that too risky??

[@magic76767676]

Accidentally deadly space probe... Makes me think of Space 1999 Season 1 Episode 6 Voyagers Return

[@curtisalanmcgee]

arthursday is my favorite day.

[@henrycobb]

The return streams of probes going both ways cannot encounter each other because the stars are in different orbits around the galaxy.

[@ColdHawk]

Louie’s cousin Omuamua wishes he’d write….

[@thebeautifulones5436]

We really need to overcome aging to make this work

[@albertoencina5774]

hello there

[@pmull6784]

Hello

[@tellusmars7770]

hey hey🚀

[@yaomingas5425]

General kenobi