One of the biggest problems they would have is just pointing their communications equipment in the right direction. The Voyager probes have a complicated guidance system (AACS) which takes input from a three-axis gyroscope and several other reference instruments to keep the 3.7m antenna pointed at Earth. If the antenna goes out of alignment then the radio beam will not hit Earth and will not be received.
The only reason this works is that the Deep Space Network on Earth is actively listening for the signal from the probes, and the people operating it know exactly what direction to point the receiving antennae to get the signal from the probes. If you don’t have very precise targeting you probably won’t get the signal.
Next year Voyager 1 will reach a distance of one light-day from Earth and it’s already a very difficult problem that is only solvable because it was planned for extensively prior to launch, so never mind trying to accomplish this at a distance of hundreds of light-years with no planning.
One of the biggest problems they would have is just pointing their communications equipment in the right direction. The Voyager probes have a complicated guidance system (AACS) which takes input from a three-axis gyroscope and several other reference instruments to keep the 3.7m antenna pointed at Earth. If the antenna goes out of alignment then the radio beam will not hit Earth and will not be received.
The only reason this works is that the Deep Space Network on Earth is actively listening for the signal from the probes, and the people operating it know exactly what direction to point the receiving antennae to get the signal from the probes. If you don’t have very precise targeting you probably won’t get the signal.
Next year Voyager 1 will reach a distance of one light-day from Earth and it’s already a very difficult problem that is only solvable because it was planned for extensively prior to launch, so never mind trying to accomplish this at a distance of hundreds of light-years with no planning.