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mfb- t1_j4yyr6f wrote

Reply to comment by moralprolapse in Whats stopping us from sending a probe into a black hole if we haven't already? by stealth941

It's assuming identical conditions otherwise.

  • Replace the ~1 meter antenna of a Mars spacecraft with a 500 meter telescope for a gain of 250,000.
  • Increase the power from ~100 W to ~5 MW for a factor 50,000.
  • Replace the 70 meter antenna of the Deep Space Network with another 500 meter antenna for another gain of 50.
  • Replace the 1600 light years used for the 18 quadrillion number by 100 light years for another gain of 250.

Combined that's a factor 150 trillion, so we are only worse by a factor 100 or so. We won't get the multi-megabit connections we can get from Mars, but it's still good enough to transfer tons of information over time. There is no rush - it will take 100 years to arrive anyway.

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