What is mankind’s greatest achievement in outer space? With the cold war starting and the space race between Russia and USA accelerating, innovative wonders happened on this Planet. Both nations’ space agencies pushed their absolute technological limit and bought some of mankind’s most unexplored segments at that time.
With Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin being the first human to travel in space and NASA’s Apollo Missions sending humans on the surface of the moon successfully and returning, the cold war brought a spark in space exploration.
These are some of the most significant events of history. Meanwhile, from the fabric of space exploration history, one event is still operational and running successfully to today’s date. Yes! It is Voyager satellites that were launched in the year 1977 and are still traveling in interstellar space serving mankind.
History of Voyager:
NASA initially in 1977 had planned to launch 2 satellites into outer space for exploring the solar system and all planets. It was the most ambitious plan that started to build its existence in 1972 and the project got completed and launched successfully in 1977.
The reason for launching in the year 1977 was due to the special position where all the planets in the solar system were aligned in a single line and closest to each other. This happens every 176 years.
Hence, Voyager 1 was launched on 5th September 1977 and Voyager 2 was launched on 2nd August 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Voyager’s mission plan included exploring Mars, Jupiter and its moons, Saturn and its moons, Uranus and Neptune, and the outer solar system.
After the launch, Voyager 1 & 2 traveled successfully and made journeys to all the planets one after another, and provided pictures and complete data of planets for the first time in the entire mankind like never before.
Unique Facts About Voyager 1 & 2:
Photo Credit: National Geographic
Voyager program consisting of voyagers 1 & 2 made lots of discoveries ranging and revealed about Jupiter’s 64 moons and Saturn’s rings and 34 moons. In 2012, Voyager 1 became 1st object to cross the outer boundary of the solar system and travel in interstellar space.
Voyager 1 & 2 had designed for a mission lifetime of 5 years. Yet, it continued to respond and operate efficiently with all its instruments active for almost 10 to 12 years. Before leaving the farthest Planet from the solar system, Voyager took the last photo of Earth from around 6 billion kilometers on Feb 14, 1990.
Its camera was then turned off for saving fuel and was sent to explore Interstellar space beyond the sun’s atmosphere of influence until its last charge remained. Voyager continued its journey with fewer instruments in operation for maximum lifespan and is still in contact today.
Voyager 1 & 2 crossed interstellar space in the Heliosphere (boundary of Solar system around 2012 and it took 1 year to exchange information for data traveling at the speed of light. Currently, Voyager 1 & 2 are still in contact that crossed Heliosphere and Heliopause and entered the deepest layer of interstellar space.
Voyager 1 & 2 are twin satellites sent in the opposite directions of the solar system in the eternal limbo where Voyager 1 will somewhere in the future after 40,000 years will encounter another nearest star’s solar system.
Currently, Voyager 1 & 2 are the fastest traveling objects with a speed of 17 km/s. It is currently 23.3 billion km away from Earth and going away with each passing second!
Voyager in interstellar space is free from sunlight’s influence. Hence, it uses a radioscope thermoelectric generator powered by nuclear fuel Plutonium.
Golden record for Interstellar Aliens
Since voyager probes were sent to Interstellar space, scientists kept in mind about possibilities of meeting an alien planet with a life similar to us and designed a Golden record that carried information of Life on Earth.
The Golden Record includes sounds of every detail that depicts life on Earth such as sounds of nature, animals, greetings in 55 different languages, baby’s crying, etc. It has pictorials on one side that depict the position of the Earth and the Solar system.
Moving Forward:
The above image shows the last image clicked by Voyager 6 billion km, far at the outermost place of the solar system. The Earth is a tiny blue dot seen in the middle of the picture.
Mankind’s greatest achievement someday will reach Another Interstellar space and its fate will be unknown for many Generations. Currently, Voyager probes have negligible fuel to power up the entire satellite and NASA has announced both the probes shutting down forever in 2030.
Written By: Prajwal Barate
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