What has been/will be the eventual fate of all our space probes?

Humans may change the fate of these probes so for the sake of argument we'll assume that humanity has suddenly, and without warning, died off leaving all probes and satellites where they presently are.

Over long enough timespans orbits decay due to any of all of these forces: Atmospheric drag, mascon, tidal effects, chaotic n-body forces, and/or radiation pressure. The forces involved are very subtle making it difficult to give exact predictions so here is a rough timeline for the life of the spacecraft we leave behind.

** 1 YFN [Less than X Year(s) from now]** * [EARTH] Most low earth satellites remain in orbit, some will be in dangerously low orbits. * [EARTH] The international space station will have lost approximately 50km of it's 400km orbital altitude * [EARTH] GPS is rendered useless as satellites have drifted out of position without corrections. * [MARS] Opportunities rovers receives insufficient power due to the position of its solar panels and dies. * [MARS] Curiosity remains functional with a thin covering of dust * [67P] The Rosetta spacecraft has drifted thousands of kilometers away and the comet would appear like a spec of light in it's camera. * [SATURN] Cassini remains in its present orbit near Titan * [OUTER] New Horizons has flown past Pluto and starting a journey to the outer Solar system. * [OUTER] Voyager's 1 & 2 continues transmitting data about the outer solar system * [OUTER] The unpowered Pioneer's 10 & 11 probes continue on their journey out of the solar system

10 YFN * [EARTH] The international space station has crashed into the atmosphere sending debris over a wide area. * [EARTH] Most low Earth orbiting satellites under 500km have re-entered and are subsequently destroyed. * [MARS] A layer of dust nearly a centimeter thick now covers all surface rovers. The Curiosity rover may still be functional * [OUTER] Voyager's 1 and 2 nuclear batteries have died, they continue their journey out of the solar system.

100 YFN * [EARTH] Lagrange point satellites in L1 and L2 have drifted out of position. * [EARTH] Most Earth orbiting satellites under 800km have re-entered and are subsequently destroyed. * [EARTH] Most satellites above 800km have malfunctioned due to age, radiation, or impact damage, amazingly a few do survive and continue transmitting. * [MARS] The Curiosity rover's nuclear battery has died, it sits on the surface under a thick layer of dust * [SATURN] The Cassini spacecraft's nuclear battery has died, it orbits Saturn near below the orbit of Titan. * [OUTER] New Horizons spacecraft's nuclear has died and has exited the solar system. * [OUTER] The unpowered Pioneer/Voyager probes continue their journey out of the solar system.

10,000 YFN * [EARTH] It's safe to say all remaining satellites are non-functional. * [EARTH] All Low Earth orbiting satellites have re-entered and are subsequently destroyed. * [EARTH] Previously geostationary orbiting satellites have drifted out of position into higher orbits at vary rates and are no longer stationary with respect to the surface of the Earth. * [MARS] Dust covers the rovers and they are effectively buried, they would not be visible on the surface. * [SATURN] Cassini's position is essentially unpredictable, it has likely impacted Saturn. * [OUTER] Pioneer 10 passes within 3.8 light years of Barnard's star * [OUTER] Pinoneer 11, Voyagers 1 & 2, and New Horizons continue away from our Sun through interstellar space

** 1,000,000,000 YFN [1 BILLION YFN] ** * [EARTH] Some satellites may remain in liberation orbits around the sun, it's probable that no satellites will remain in orbit of Earth * [OUTER] The Pioneer plaques, and the Voyager golden records will be damaged to the point where the information on them will be irrecoverable. The largely intact probes continue to orbit the galaxy.

** 10,000,000,000 YFN [10 BILLIOn YFN] ** * The Sun has expanded into a red giant the remaining satellites and inner solar system probes are destroyed. All that will remain of humanity is just these five probes: Voyagers 1 & 2, Pioneers 10 & 11, and New Horizons. The space-weathered probes are very unlikely to impact anything and may continue for a very long time

** 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 YFN [1030 YFN] ** * Voyagers 1 & 2, Pioneers 10 & 11, and New Horizons are likely to be destroyed by space-weathering, if not, there is reasonable chance they have impacted another object or fallen into the parent galaxies central black hole.

** 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 [1036 YFN] ** * This is the absolute upper limit for lifespan, Voyagers 1 & 2, Pioneers 10 & 11, and New Horizons, if by some miracle they survived then proton decay will have disintegrated the probes into atoms by now.

Wikipedia has a article is great for this called Timeline of the far future, I can cite nany of the predictions above directly from it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future

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