The spelling is deliberate. Mark Krikorian is upset that we’re going to shut it down, and thinks that it’s penny wise and pound foolish, given the low costs of continuing to listen to it. But I wonder how low the cost really is, and how high the value.

I haven’t paid much attention to it, because I’m not that big on space science, but I’ll bet that the costs cited to keep it going don’t include time on the DSN. Does anyone know how DSN time is allocated, and what the opportunity costs would be for Goldstone, Canberra et al to have to point at Voyager to listen to the tiny trickle of data that’s coming in at this point? I’d think that if they want to stop listening, that would be the reason, but I don’t know if there is any procedure or pricing policy set up for actually buying time on the big dishes, even if a non-profit foundation were set up to take it over. Anyone out there knowledgeable about this?