The Voyagers, two antiques that celebrate 45 years exploring space – NIUS – NIUS

Launched in 1977, they are NASA’s longest operational mission and the only spacecraft to have explored interstellar space. They have three million times less memory than a smartphone and transmit 38,000 times slower than a 5G connection. They are the only probes that have explored interstellar space. modern mobile phones and transmit data about 38,000 times slower than a 5G internet connection. However, the Voyager probes remain at the forefront of space exploration. Managed and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, they are the only probes to have explored interstellar space, the galactic ocean through which our Sun and its planets travel. Ambassadors of humanity Both spacecraft also they are ambassadors of humanity in space. Each carries a gold disc containing images of life on Earth, diagrams of basic scientific principles, and audio that includes sounds of nature, greetings in multiple languages, and music. The gold-coated records serve as a cosmic “message in a bottle” for anyone who might come across them. At the rate at which gold decays in space and is eroded away by cosmic radiation, the records will last more than a billion years. Beyond Expectations Voyager 2 was launched on August 20, 1977, followed by Voyager 1 on September 5. Both probes traveled to Jupiter and Saturn with Voyager 1 moving faster and reaching them first. Together, the probes revealed much about the solar system’s two largest planets and their moons. Voyager 2 also became the first and only spacecraft to fly near Uranus (in 1986) and Neptune (in 1989), offering humanity extraordinary views and information about these distant worlds. Voyager 1 and 2 have accomplished much since its launch in 1977. This infographic highlights the major milestones of the NASA/JPL-Caltech missionWhile Voyager 2 was making these flybys, Voyager 1 was heading toward the edge of the heliosphere. Emerging from it in 2012, Voyager 1 discovered that the heliosphere blocks 70% of cosmic rays, or energetic particles, created by exploding stars. Voyager 2, after completing its planetary explorations, continued to the edge of the heliosphere, exiting in 2018. The twin spacecraft’s combined data from this region has challenged previous theories about the exact shape of the heliosphere. as both Voyagers explore interstellar space, they are providing humanity with observations of uncharted territory,” says Linda Spilker, associate Voyager project scientist at JPL. “This is the first time we have been able to directly study how a star, our Sun, interacts with particles and magnetic fields outside our heliosphere, helping scientists understand the local neighborhood between stars, changing some of the theories about this region and providing key information for future missions.” A long journey Over the years, the Voyager operating team has had to get used to its ‘aches’. Sometimes they have even had to turn to retired colleagues to solve problems or have had to study old manuals for a technology that was obsolete decades ago. Each Voyager is powered by a plutonium-containing radioisotope thermoelectric generator, which emits heat that is converted to electricity. As the plutonium decays, the heat production decreases and the Voyagers lose electricity. To compensate for this loss of power, the team that operates them has already shut down all their non-essential systems and also some that were once considered essential, including the heaters that protect the still-functioning instruments from the frigid temperatures of space. All five instruments that had their heaters turned off since 2019 are still functional, despite being well below the lowest temperatures they were tested at. status on one of its onboard systems became confused. Despite this, the system and spacecraft continue to function normally, suggesting that the problem is with the production of the status data, not the system itself. The probe continues to send back science observations as the engineering team tries to fix the problem or find a way to fix it. “Voyager has continued to make amazing discoveries and inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers,” says Suzanne Dodd, Project Manager Voyager at JPL. “We don’t know how long the mission will continue, but we can be sure that it will provide even more scientific surprises as it moves away from Earth.”