Voyager set to leave the solar system

It just keeps going and going and going...



Voyager Spacecraft Approaches Solar System's Final Frontier

NASA's venerable Voyager 1 spacecraft, built and operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is about to make history again. It is the first spacecraft to enter the solar system's final frontier, a vast expanse where wind from the Sun blows hot against thin gas between the stars: interstellar space.

However, before it reaches this region, Voyager 1 must pass through the termination shock, a violent zone that is the source of beams of high-energy particles. Voyager's journey through this turbulent zone will give scientists the first direct measurements of our solar system's unexplored final frontier, the heliosheath. Scientists are debating whether this passage has already begun. Two papers about this research are being published in Nature today.

The first paper, by Dr. Stamatios Krimigis of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., and his team, supports the claim Voyager 1 passed beyond the termination shock. The second paper, by Dr. Frank McDonald of the University of Maryland, College Park, and his team, disputes the claim. A third paper, published October 30 in Geophysical Research Letters by Dr. Leonard Burlaga of Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and collaborators, states Voyager 1 did not pass beyond the termination shock.

"Voyager 1 has seen striking signs of the region deep in space where a giant shock wave forms, as the wind from the Sun abruptly slows and presses outward against the interstellar wind. The observations surprised and puzzled us, so there is much to be discovered as it begins exploring this new region at the outer edge of the solar system," said Dr. Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Launched on September 5, 1977, Voyager 1 explored the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn before being tossed out toward deep space by Saturn's gravity. It is approaching, and may have temporarily entered, the region beyond termination shock. At more than 13 billion kilometers (approximately eight billion miles) from the Sun, Voyager 1 is the most distant object from Earth built by humanity.

The termination shock is where the solar wind, a thin stream of electrically charged gas blown constantly from the Sun, is slowed by pressure from gas between the stars. At the termination shock, the solar wind slows abruptly from its average speed of about 700,000 to 1,500,000 miles per hour.

Estimating the location of the termination shock is hard, because we don't know the precise conditions in interstellar space. We do know speed and pressure of the solar wind changes, which cause the termination shock to expand, contract and ripple.

From about August 1, 2002 to February 5, 2003, scientists noticed unusual readings from the two energetic particle instruments on Voyager 1, indicating it had entered a region of the solar system unlike any previously encountered. This led some to claim Voyager 1 may have entered a transitory feature of the termination shock.

The controversy would be resolved if Voyager could measure the speed of the solar wind, because the solar wind slows abruptly at the termination shock. However, the instrument that measured solar wind speed no longer functions on the spacecraft. Scientists must use data from instruments that are still working to infer if Voyager pierced the termination shock.

"We have used an indirect technique to show the solar wind slowed down from about 700,000 miles per hour to much less than 100,000 mph. We used this same technique when the instrument measuring the solar wind speed was still working. The agreement between the two measurements was better than 20 percent in most cases," Krimigis said.

"The analysis of the Voyager 1 magnetic field observations in late 2002 indicate that it did not enter a new region of the distant heliosphere by having crossed the termination shock. Rather, the magnetic field data had the characteristics to be expected based upon many years of previous observations, although the intensity of energetic particles observed is unusually high," Burlaga said.

Voyagers 1 and 2 were built by JPL, which continues to operate both spacecraft 26 years after their launch. The spacecraft are controlled and their data returned through NASA's Deep Space Network, a global spacecraft tracking system also operated by JPL. The Voyager Project Manager is Ed Massey of JPL. For their original missions to Jupiter and Saturn, the Voyagers were destined to explore regions of space where solar panels would not be feasible, so each was equipped with three radioisotope thermoelectric generators to produce electrical power for the spacecraft systems and instruments. Still operating in remote, cold and dark conditions 26 years later, the Voyagers owe their longevity to these Department of Energy-provided generators, which produce electricity from the heat generated by the natural decay of plutonium dioxide.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/11/031106051934.htm

 

A couple more pics, its amazing that Voyager has survived so long - it was originally only intended to be in service 5 years.

 

This is an interesting article that goes over the next phase of Voyager's journey into deep space. It's really mind-boggling to think we are about to have our first interstellar space probe making readings and it will continue to do so for the next 20 years.

Voyager Interstellar Mission
Mission Objective

The mission objective of the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM) is to extend the NASA exploration of the solar system beyond the neighborhood of the outer planets to the outer limits of the Sun's sphere of influence, and possibly beyond. This extended mission is continuing to characterize the outer solar system environment and search for the heliopause boundary, the outer limits of the Sun's magnetic field and outward flow of the solar wind. Penetration of the heliopause boundary between the solar wind and the interstellar medium will allow measurements to be made of the interstellar fields, particles and waves unaffected by the solar wind.

Mission Characteristic

The VIM is an extension of the Voyager primary mission that was completed in 1989 with the close flyby of Neptune by the Voyager 2 spacecraft. Neptune was the final outer planet visited by a Voyager spacecraft. Voyager 1 completed its planned close flybys of the Jupiter and Saturn planetary systems while Voyager 2, in addition to its own close flybys of Jupiter and Saturn, completed close flybys of the remaining two gas giants, Uranus and Neptune.

At the start of the VIM, the two Voyager spacecraft had been in flight for over 12 years having been launched in August (Voyager 2) and September (Voyager 1), 1977. Voyager 1 was at a distance of approximately 40 AU (Astronomical Unit - mean distance of Earth from the Sun, 150 million kilometers) from the Sun, and Voyager 2 was at a distance of approximately 31 AU.

As of July 2003, Voyager 1 was at a distance of 13.3 Billion Kilometers (88 AU) from the sun and Voyager 2 at a distance of 10.6 Billion kilometers (70 AU).

Voyager 1 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.6 AU per year, 35 degrees out of the ecliptic plan to the north, in the general direction of the Solar Apex (the direction of the Sun's motion relative to nearby stars). Voyager 2 is also escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.3 AU per year, 48 degrees out of the ecliptic plane to the south.


Both Voyagers are headed towards the outer boundary of the solar system in search of the heliopause, the region where the Sun's influence wanes and the beginning of interstellar space can be sensed.

This is where the million-mile-per-hour solar winds slows to about 250,000 miles per hour—the first indication that the wind is nearing the heliopause. The Voyagers should cross the heliopause 10 to 20 years after reaching the termination shock. The Voyagers have enough electrical power and thruster fuel to operate at least until 2020. By that time, Voyager 1 will be 12.4 billion miles (19.9 billion KM) from the Sun and Voyager 2 will be 10.5 billion miles (16.9 billion KM) away.

Eventually, the Voyagers will pass other stars. In about 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will drift within 1.6 light years (9.3 trillion miles) of AC+79 3888, a star in the constellation of Camelopardalis. In some 296,000 years, Voyager 2 will pass 4.3 light years (25 trillion miles) from Sirius, the brightest star in the sky . The Voyagers are destined—perhaps eternally—to wander the Milky Way.

Passage through the heliopause begins the interstellar exploration phase with the spacecraft operating in an interstellar wind dominated environment. This interstellar exploration is the ultimate goal of the Voyager Interstellar Mission.

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/interstellar.html

 

I forgot about this weird record they sent with Voyager... you'd think after being released for two decades the disk would have gone platinum by now.



Voyager 1 and 2 both carry a so-called "golden record" -- a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk that is actually a phonograph record. The disk carries greetings and an overview of our culture to extraterrestrials that may one day stumble across one of these man-made craft.

The record includes samples of music; nature sounds such as thunder, waves crashing, bird songs; and greetings in multiple languages, including from then President Jimmy Carter and U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. Pictographs on the disk explain how it should be played. A phonograph needle is included.

 

Double bump for epic human achievement...
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Voyager 1: Humanity's time capsule to the cosmos clears the solar system

It's official: Scientists say that Voyager 1, bearing photos and sounds from Earth and directions to our solar system, now has gone where no human craft has gone before, 11 billion miles away.

full article with vid