quote: “In the past, engineers have compared keeping the probes operational to keeping an old car running. The tech is severely outdated, yet it keeps ticking over – a trend often seen in the spacecraft of past decades.”
At some point us humans will probably simply have forgotten how to maintain them.
Nah, these systems are simple and incredibly well documented. A ton of people have operated them, too. They'll be fine.
I'd expect something like that to happen to a university cubesat lol.