New Paper Published on Voyagers
I have recently published a new paper involving a speculative conjecture on the possibility of a Voyager encounter with an ETI probe. The paper has been published by the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society in the May 2024 issue.
The paper speculates that a recent Voyager 1 anomaly with the Flight Data System (FDS) could be attributed to a forced downlink operation by a passing ETI probe. This speculation is made as an exercise in how we might think about detecting such operations in the future, on the assumption that a Zoo containment policy of our Solar System was in place.
An ETI probe might be motivated to take such action in the interest of understanding where the probe comes from and what is its intentions. In addition, an examination of its technology, particularly power and propulsion, tells them something about the progress of our development and therefore when we will be out there.
For now, it is concluded that the likely cause of the anomaly was due to the enhanced cosmic ray flux as the probe ventured further out into the interstellar medium, yet the thought provoking idea is worthy of considering for the future. In particular, how might we design in booby traps into our hardware and software technologies so that any future attempted interference could be detected.
The full paper can be retrieved by ordering from the British Interplanetary Society:
In the Hypothetical Scenario of an Interception of the Voyagers by an ETI Probe – BIS Shop
