The Voyager Mission

The Voyager Mission In 1979, two tiny spacecraft were launched on one-way missions of planetary discovery. They were the twin  Voyager spacecraft, predecessors to the  Cassini spacecraft at Saturn, the Juno mission at Jupiter, and the New Horizons mission to Pluto and beyond. They were preceded in gas giant space by the Pioneers 10 and 11. The Voyagers, which are still transmitting data back to Earth as they leave the solar system, each  carry an array of cameras and instruments designed to  record magnetic, atmospheric, and other data about the planets and their moons, and to send images and data for further study back on Earth.   Voyagers Trips Voyager 1 is speeding along at about 57,600 kph (35,790 mph), which is  fast enough to travel from Earth to the Sun three and a half times in one year. Voyager 2 is   Both spacecraft  carry a gold record greeting to the universe  containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. The two-spacecraft Voyager missions were designed to replace original plans for a Grand Tour of the planets that would have used four complex spacecraft to explore the five outer planets during the late 1970s. NASA canceled the plan in 1972 and instead proposed to send two spacecraft to Jupiter and Saturn in 1977. They were  designed to explore the two gas giants in more detail than the two Pioneers (Pioneers 10 and 11) that preceded them. The Voyager Design and Trajectory The original design of the two spacecraft was based on that of the older Mariners (such as Mariner 4, which went to Mars). Power was provided by three plutonium oxide radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) mounted at the end of a boom. Voyager 1 was launched after Voyager 2, but because of a faster route, it exited the Asteroid Belt earlier than its twin. Both spacecraft got gravitational assists at each planet they passed, which aligned them for their next targets.   Voyager 1 began its Jovian imaging mission in April 1978 at a range of 265 million kilometers from the planet; images sent back by January the following year indicated that Jupiters atmosphere was more turbulent than during the Pioneer flybys in 1973 and 1974. Voyager Studies Jupiters Moons On February 10, 1979, the spacecraft crossed into the Jovian moon system, and in early March, it had already discovered a thin (less than 30 kilometers thick) ring circling Jupiter. Flying past Amalthea, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto (in that order) on March 5th, Voyager 1 returned spectacular photos of these worlds. The more interesting find was on Io, where images showed a bizarre yellow, orange and brown world with a least eight active volcanoes spewing material into space, making it one of the most (if not the most) geologically active planetary bodies in the solar system. The spacecraft also discovered two new moons, Thebe and Metis. Voyager 1s closest encounter with Jupiter was at 12:05 UT on March 5, 1979, at a range of 280,000 kilometers. On to Saturn Following the Jupiter encounter, Voyager 1 completed a single course correction on April 89 1979, in preparation for its rendezvous with Saturn. The second correction on October 10, 1979, ensured that the spacecraft would not hit Saturns moon Titan. Its flyby of the Saturn system in November 1979 was as spectacular as its previous encounter. Exploring Saturns Icy Moons Voyager 1 found five new moons and a ring system consisting of thousands of bands, discovered a new ring (the G  Ring), and found shepherding satellites on either side of the F-ring satellites that keep the rings well defined. During its flyby, the spacecraft photographed Saturns moons Titan, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, and Rhea. Based on incoming data, all the moons appeared to be largely composed of water ice. Perhaps the most interesting target was Titan, which Voyager 1 passed at 05:41 UT on  November 12th at a range of 4,000 kilometers. Images showed a thick atmosphere that completely hid the surface. The spacecraft found that the moons atmosphere was composed of 90 percent nitrogen. Pressure and temperature at the surface were 1.6 atmospheres and -180 ° C, respectively. Voyager 1s closest approach to Saturn was at 23:45 UT on November 12,  1980, at a range of 124,000 kilometers. Voyager 2 followed up with visits to Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1981, Uranus in 1986, and Neptune in 1986. Like its sister ship, it investigated planetary atmospheres, magnetospheres, gravitational fields, and climates, and discovered fascinating facts about the moons of all the planets. Voyager 2 also was the first to visit all four gas giant planets. Outward Bound Because of the specific requirements for  the Titan flyby, the spacecraft was not directed to Uranus and Neptune. Instead,  following the encounter with Saturn, Voyager 1 headed on a trajectory out of the solar system at a speed of 3.5 AU per year. It is on a course 35 ° out of the ecliptic plane to the north, in the general direction of the Suns motion relative to nearby stars. It is now in interstellar space, having passed through the  heliopause boundary, the outer limit of the Suns magnetic field, and the outward flow of the solar wind. Its the first spacecraft from Earth to travel into interstellar space. On February 17, 1998, Voyager 1  became the most distant human-made object in existence when it surpassed Pioneer 10s range from Earth. In mid-2016, the  Voyager 1  was more than  20 billion kilometers from Earth (135 times the Sun-Earth distance) and continuing to move away, while maintaining a tenuous radio link with Earth. Its power supply should last through 2025, allowing the transmitter to keep sending back information about the interstellar environment. Voyager 2 is on a trajectory headed out toward the star Ross 248, which it will encounter in about 40,000 years, and pass by Sirius in just under 300,000 years. It will keep transmitting as long as it has power, which may also be until the year 2025.   Edited and updated by Carolyn Collins Petersen.