Voyager 1 overview

is a 722kg (1,592 lb) robot space probe operating outside the Solar System and beyond, launched September 5, 1977. It still receives remote control commands, and transmits information about The Earth, which is pursuing its mission to locate and study the borders of the Solar System, including the Kuiper belt and the outer.

Voyager 1 mission

Voyager spacecraft 1.

Its first task was to visit Jupiter and Saturn; is that it was the first spacecraft to provide detailed images of the moons of the two planets. This ship uses energy from radioactive isotope generators. The radioactive source used is Plutonium (Pu). Due to radioactive decay, energy will one day be depleted.

In the 1960s, the proposal for a Great Cruise to study external gas planets made NASA launch a new space mission in the early 1970s. Information obtained from the Pioneer 10 vessel will help Voyager engineers design the ship so that it can better withstand the intense radiation environment around Jupiter.

Originally, Voyager 1 was intended to be the "Mariner 11" ship of the Mariner program. As the budget was cut, the scale of the mission was reduced and only went to Jupiter and Saturn.

Voyager 1 activities

Voyager 1 is currently the most man-made object out of Earth, away from both the Earth and the Sun at a rate of its own orbit than any other spacecraft.

Voyager 1 was launched using Titan IIIE / Centaur missiles.

1. Although its brother spacecraft, Voyager 2, was launched 16 days in advance, Voyager 2 will never surpass Voyager 1 because of its lower launch rate.
2. The New Horizons spacecraft will never pass Voyager 1, although it is launched from Earth at a speed greater than both Voyager ships.

The current speed of New Horizons is slightly larger than Voyager 1 but when New Horizons reaches the same distance from the Sun as the current Voyager 1, its speed will be about 13 km / s (8 mph) compared to the speed. Voyager's is 17 km / s (10.5 miles / sec). During his flight, Voyager 1 had the advantage of some gravity support thrust.

Along with Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 2, and New Horizons , Voyager 1 is an interstellar spacecraft . If Voyager 1 is going towards the nearest star, it will arrive there after about 75,000 years.

Voyager 1 had the first targets of Jupiter and Saturn and Moon moons and their rings; Its current mission is to track the stop and measure elements of the solar wind and interstellar environment.

Both Voyager ships have far surpassed their original life expectancy. Each spacecraft has electrical energy from three radioisotope electrothermal generators (RTGs), and intends to continue to generate enough electricity for the spacecraft to contact Earth for at least 2025.

Voyager 1 missions

Jupiter

Detailed fake color of Jupiter's atmosphere.

Voyager 1 began photographing Jupiter in January 1979. Its closest approach to Jupiter took place on March 5, 1979, at a distance of about 349,000 kilometers (217,000 miles) from the center of the planet. Because of the greater resolution of the image when closer access, most of the moon observations, rings, magnetic fields, and radiation rings of the Jupiter system are carried out in a 48-hour period. This latest approach. Voyager 1 ended the shooting of Jupiter in April 1979.

Two Voyager spacecraft made several important discoveries about Jupiter, its satellites, radiation belts, and its previously unseen planetary disks. The most surprising finding about Jupiter is the presence of volcanic activity on Moon Io, never observed from Earth, or by Pioneer 10 or 11.

Saturn

Gravity support of Jupiter was successfully executed by both Voyager ships, and the two ships began to visit Saturn with its Moon system and belt. Voyager 1's Saturn flight took place in November 1980, with the most recent approach on November 12, 1980, when the spacecraft entered a distance of 124,000 km from Saturn's highest clouds. Camera on the spacecraft has discovered complex structures in Saturn's rings, and its remote sensors have studied Saturn's atmosphere and its large Titan satellite.

Saturn captures from a distance of 5.3 million km, 4 days after it approached closest to Saturn.

Since Pioneer 11 a year earlier discovered a thick atmosphere and plenty of gas on Titan, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's spacecraft control devices were selected for Voyager 1 to make a close approach to Titan, and also needed to terminate its Grand Tour there. (About the continuation of the Grand Tour, see the sections of Uranus and Neptune in Voyager 2).

Its launch trajectory with a path across Titan created an excess gravity deflection that made Voyager 1 out of the Ecliptic plane, thus ending its planetary science mission. Voyager 1 could have been put into another launch trajectory, where Saturn's weight slingshot effect would drive and launch Voyager 1 out of the way through Pluto. However, this option has not been implemented, because the other orbiting trajectory that passes through Titan has been decided to get more scientific value and reduce the risk.

Star service

"Family portrait" of the solar system Voyager 1 captures.

On February 14, 1990, Voyager 1 took a picture of the first "family portrait" of our solar system from the outside, [23] including a famous photo called "translucent blue dot". It is estimated that both Voyager ships have enough electrical energy to transmit radio waves at least until 2025, which will be more than 48 years after launch. Voyager 1 is a spacecraft operating at the farthest distance of receiving commands and signaling to Earth.

Japan stopped

When Voyager 1 headed to interstellar space, its instruments continued to study the Solar System; Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are using plasma wave devices on Voyager 1 and 2 to search for a stop.

Voyager 1 in the bag.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory believe that Voyager 1 came to a shocking end in February 2003. Some other scientists expressed doubt, discussed in Nature. on November 6, 2003. During a scientific meeting at the American Geophysical Union in New Orleans, USA on the morning of May 25, 2005, Dr. Ed Stone presented evidence that Voyager 1 was overcoming the last shock. in December 2004.

The problem will not be resolved until the data is available, as the Voyager 1 solar wind detector has been shut down in 1990. This failure means that the final end of shock investigation must be debated. Comment from data from other devices on Voyager 1.

However, in May 2005 a NASA newspaper said that there was a consensus that Voyager 1 was in a bag. Scientists predict spacecraft will reach a stop in 2015.

Gold disk

Inside the spacecraft there is one of the Voyager Golden Disk. This record disc contains selected sounds and images to show the diversity of life and culture on Earth. It is intended to send any form of intelligent life outside of the Earth, or to the future man, who can find it.

Current status

On March 20, 2013, Voyager-1 was announced as the first man-made object to leave the Solar System.

On November 19, 2015, Voyager 1 will be at a distance of 133.15 astronomical units from the Sun. Voyager 1 is not geared towards any particular star, but at about 40,000 years it will pass in about 1.6 years of AC + 79 star light 3888 in the constellation Camelopardalis by AC + 79 3888 going toward the Solar System. at a speed of about 119 kilometers per second.