VOYAGER 1 & 2

[swamprat]

Spacecraft enters 'cosmic purgatory'

December 6th, 2011


NASA/JPL/CalTech
This illustration shows Voyager inside the stagnation region, and the distance of that region from the sun.

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is 11 billion miles from our sun and has entered a region NASA is describing as a "cosmic purgatory," a part of space where there is very little solar wind.

The latest data, transmitted to Earth by NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), show that Voyager 1 has entered a new region of space referred to as the "stagnation region."

"We've been using the flow of energetic charged particles at Voyager 1 as a kind of wind sock to estimate the solar wind velocity. We've found that the wind speeds are low in this region and gust erratically," says Rob Decker, a Voyager researcher at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, in a statement. "For the first time, the wind even blows back at us. We are evidently traveling in completely new territory. Scientists had suggested previously that there might be a stagnation layer, but we weren't sure it existed until now."

Voyager 1 is still within the heliosphere, the area around the sun filled with charged particles blown from our star, but the data indicate that the craft will cross into interstellar space in the relatively near future - the next few months, or few years.

That may seem like a big gap in the estimate, but consider that the Voyager 1 and 2 craft have been in flight for over 30 years. It's the most distant manmade craft launched from Earth, having overtaken Pioneer 10 in 1998.

Voyager 1 and her sister ship Voyager 2 were launched in 1977. Their original mission, to explore Jupiter and Saturn, resulted in the discovery of active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io, among other things. The mission was extended to include visits to Uranus and Neptune, which have still only been visited by Voyager 2.

Voyager's current mission is called the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM) and has the goal of extending exploration of the solar system to the edge of the sun's sphere of influence.

lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/06/spacecraft-enters-cosmic-purgatory/?hpt=hp_bn2

[Deleted]

Ive been spending alot of time lately searching through images from various spacecraft . Friday night I looked at the asteroid Vesta from the Dawn spacecraft, then I went back through several apollo missions again. Last night I went through JPL's Cassini-huygens probe images of Saturn and various moons (interesting), and next will probably be again Voyager I and II, along with Pioneer 10-11. Ive also spent alot of time checking out the images from the probes on Mars. Its amazing what mankind has accomplished in the last generation. Voyager is still sending back data after all these years and has exceeded its expectations. Its amazing what access we have at the touch of our finger tips.

[auntym]

voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html

WHAT IS THE GOLDEN RECORD?[/size]



The Golden Record.

Pioneers 10 and 11, which preceded Voyager, both carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the distant future. With this example before them, NASA placed a more ambitious message aboard Voyager 1 and 2-a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record-a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.

The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University, et. al. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales, and other animals. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim. Each record is encased in a protective aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge and a needle. Instructions, in symbolic language, explain the origin of the spacecraft and indicate how the record is to be played. The 115 images are encoded in analog form. The remainder of the record is in audio, designed to be played at 16-2/3 revolutions per minute. It contains the spoken greetings, beginning with Akkadian, which was spoken in Sumer about six thousand years ago, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect. Following the section on the sounds of Earth, there is an eclectic 90-minute selection of music, including both Eastern and Western classics and a variety of ethnic music. Once the Voyager spacecraft leave the solar system (by 1990, both will be beyond the orbit of Pluto), they will find themselves in empty space. It will be forty thousand years before they make a close approach to any other planetary system. As Carl Sagan has noted, "The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet."

The definitive work about the Voyager record is "Murmurs of Earth" by Executive Director, Carl Sagan, Technical Director, Frank Drake, Creative Director, Ann Druyan, Producer, Timothy Ferris, Designer, Jon Lomberg, and Greetings Organizer, Linda Salzman. Basically, this book is the story behind the creation of the record, and includes a full list of everything on the record. "Murmurs of Earth", originally published in 1978, was reissued in 1992 by Warner News Media with a CD-ROM that replicates the Voyager record. Unfortunately, this book is now out of print, but it is worth the effort to try and find a used copy or browse through a library copy



.
VOYAGER: THE GREAT ADVENTURE CONTINUES: voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/JPLvoyagerModule/JPLvoyagerModule.html



FOR MORE INFO: voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html

[auntym]

news.discovery.com/space/voyager-1-about-to-become-interstellar-emissary-120615.html


Voyager 1 About to Become Interstellar Emissary?[/color]

Analysis by Ian O'Neill
Fri Jun 15, 2012




NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft may be getting its first taste of interstellar waters beyond our sun's familiar shores and, like the pioneers that first took to the oceans to explore seas unknown, the 34-year-old robotic spacecraft is about to make history as the first man-made object to venture beyond the known horizon.

This historic announcement was made on Thursday by the team keeping a careful eye on Voyager 1's particle detectors who noticed an uptick in interstellar cosmic ray counts in recent years. That can mean only one thing: the mission is beginning to leave the outermost regions of the heliosphere -- the farthest extent of the sun's influence.

NEWS: Voyager: Solar System Edge is Bubbly and 'Frothy' news.discovery.com/space/voyager-probes-solar-system-edge-magnetism-110610.html

"The latest data indicate that we are clearly in a new region where things are changing more quickly. It is very exciting. We are approaching the solar system's frontier," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at Caltech in Pasadena, Calif.

"From January 2009 to January 2012, there had been a gradual increase of about 25 percent in the amount of galactic cosmic rays Voyager was encountering," he continued. "More recently, we have seen very rapid escalation in that part of the energy spectrum. Beginning on May 7, the cosmic ray hits have increased five percent in a week and nine percent in a month."

Complementing the detection of the uptick of interstellar cosmic rays, another detector has watched a marked decline in the quantity of energetic particles emanating from within the heliosphere. When the spacecraft completely exits the sun's sphere of influence, this particle count will disappear.

CONTINUE READING: news.discovery.com/space/voyager-1-about-to-become-interstellar-emissary-120615.html

[auntym]

science.howstuffworks.com/question431.htm


How are the Voyager spacecraft able to transmit radio messages so far?


The two Voyage spacecraft certainly have had an amazing track record. They were sent to photograph planets like Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune and have just kept on going past the outer edge of the solar system. Voyager 1 is currently over 7 billion miles (about 11 billion kilometers) away from Earth and is still transmitting -- it takes about 10 hours for the signal to travel from the spacecraft to Earth!

The Voyager spacecraft use 23-watt radios. This is higher than the 3 watts a typical cell phone uses, but in the grand scheme of things it is still a low-power transmitter. Big radio stations on Earth transmit at tens of thousands of watts and they still fade out fairly quickly.

The key to receiving the signals is therefore not the power of the radio, but a combination of three other things:

* Very large antennas
* Directional antennas that point right at each other
* Radio frequencies without a lot of man-made interference on them

The antennas that the Voyager spacecraft use are big. You may have seen people who have large satellite dish antennas in their yards. These are typically 2 or 3 meters (6 to 10 feet) in diameter. The Voyager spacecraft has an antenna that is 3.7 meters (14 feet) in diameter, and it transmits to a 34 meter (100 feet or so) antenna on Earth. The Voyager antenna and the Earth antenna are pointed right at each other. When you compare your phone's stubby, little omni-directional antenna to a 34 meter directional antenna, you can see the main thing that makes a difference!

The Voyager satellites are also transmitting in the 8 GHz range, and there is not a lot of interference at this frequency. Therefore the antenna on Earth can use an extremely sensitive amplifier and still make sense of the faint signals it receives. Then when the earth antenna transmits back to the spacecraft, it uses extremely high power (tens of thousands of watts) to make sure the spacecraft gets the message.

CONTINUE READING: science.howstuffworks.com/question431.htm

[auntym]

www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2159359/Humanity-escapes-solar-Voyager-1-signals-reached-edge-interstellar-space.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+C2C-InTheNews+%28Feed+-+Coast+to+Coast+-+In+the+News%29

Humanity escapes the solar system: Voyager 1 signals that it has reached the edge of interstellar space - 11billion miles away[/color]

By Eddie Wrenn

PUBLISHED: 14 June 2012

With absolutely no attempt at hyperbole at all, it is fair to say that this is one of - if not the - biggest achievement of the human race.

For, as we speak, an object conceived in the human mind, and built by our tools, and launched from our planet, is sailing out of the further depths of our solar system - and will be the first object made by man to sail out into interstellar space.

The Voyager 1, built by Nasa and launched in 1977 has spent the last 35 years steadily increasing its distance from Earth, and is now now 17,970,000,000km - or 11,100,000,000miles - away, travelling at 10km a second.

Indications over the last week implies that Voyager 1 is now leaving the heliosphere - the last vestige of this solar system.


Voyager is now detecting the first traces of 'interstellar winds' - the signs it is finally reaching the edges of solar system

The Atlantic reports that the Voyager 1 - which is still managing to communicate with Earth with radio waves that reach us 16 hours later - is beginning to experience a bit of heat.

It is detecting more energetic particles around it, implying it it at the very edge of the heliosheath, which is like a bubble around the solar system, protecting us from the cosmic winds of deep space.

The Voyager entered the heliosphere in 2004

According to The Atlantic, certain cosmic rays have a hard time entering the heliosphere, but as of last month, the sum of these slower particles increased by about 10 per cent.

This does not necessarily mean we have crossed over - but it means we are getting close.

Voyager scientist Edward Stone told The Atlantic: 'This is the first time any spacecraft has been there.

'We're looking at our data every day - we listen to these spacecraft every day, for a few hours every day - to keep track of what's going on. ... It's very exciting from a scientific point of view, when you're seeing something that nobody's seen before.

'Since nothing's ever been there before, we don't know what it will look like, which makes it a little hard to recognize "it" at all.

'That's the exciting thing.'

It will be hard to define when Voyager has left. It will not be a clean break - the molecules will thin out less, and there will be no wall or set boundary.

What will the Voyager find out there? Probably close to an absolute vacuum, save for a few long-range comets which still orbit the sun.

Scientists expect to see several telltale signs when Voyager 1 finally crosses the boundary including a change in the magnetic field direction and the type of wind.

Interstellar wind is slower, colder and denser than solar wind.


CONTINUE READING: www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2159359/Humanity-escapes-solar-Voyager-1-signals-reached-edge-interstellar-space.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+C2C-InTheNews+%28Feed+-+Coast+to+Coast+-+In+the+News%29

[auntym]

voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html

VOYAGER THE INTERSTELLER MISSION

What is the Golden Record?

Pioneers 10 and 11, which preceded Voyager, both carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the distant future. With this example before them, NASA placed a more ambitious message aboard Voyager 1 and 2-a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record-a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.


MESSAGES FROM EARTH





SCENES FROM EARTH
voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/scenes.html

GREETINGS FROM EARTH
voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/greetings.html

MUSIC FROM EARTH
voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/music.html

SOUNDS FROM EARTH
voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/sounds.html


The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University, et. al. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales, and other animals. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim. Each record is encased in a protective aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge and a needle. Instructions, in symbolic language, explain the origin of the spacecraft and indicate how the record is to be played. The 115 images are encoded in analog form. The remainder of the record is in audio, designed to be played at 16-2/3 revolutions per minute. It contains the spoken greetings, beginning with Akkadian, which was spoken in Sumer about six thousand years ago, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect. Following the section on the sounds of Earth, there is an eclectic 90-minute selection of music, including both Eastern and Western classics and a variety of ethnic music. Once the Voyager spacecraft leave the solar system (by 1990, both will be beyond the orbit of Pluto), they will find themselves in empty space. It will be forty thousand years before they make a close approach to any other planetary system. As Carl Sagan has noted, "The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet."


The definitive work about the Voyager record is "Murmurs of Earth" by Executive Director, Carl Sagan, Technical Director, Frank Drake, Creative Director, Ann Druyan, Producer, Timothy Ferris, Designer, Jon Lomberg, and Greetings Organizer, Linda Salzman. Basically, this book is the story behind the creation of the record, and includes a full list of everything on the record. "Murmurs of Earth", originally published in 1978, was reissued in 1992 by Warner News Media with a CD-ROM that replicates the Voyager record. Unfortunately, this book is now out of print, but it is worth the effort to try and find a used copy or browse through a library copy.

[Deleted]

Bon Voyage..Voyager 1

[auntym]

www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1701591

An interview with Voyager 2 ... at the edge of the solar system[/color]

15 Oct 2012,

The Conversation[/color]

By Alice Gorman, Flinders University

Interviewing a spacecraft isn’t something one does every day. It certainly wasn’t an option back in the late 1970s, when Voyager 1 and 2 set off on a mission like no other before or since: to visit some of the most mysterious planets in the solar system, and then to continue out and on, into the galaxy.

But just recently I was lucky enough to “interview” Voyager 2, via its Twitter account, on behalf of both spacecraft.

Voyager 2 left Earth first, on August 20 1977, followed by Voyager 1 on September 5. Since then the twin spacecraft have revealed many secrets about our solar system.

Earlier this year, it looked as if Voyager 1 was about to become the first human object to ever leave the solar system. The craft was approaching the heliopause – the boundary point at which the solar wind meets the interstellar wind. But a recent study published in Nature suggests this moment may yet be some years off.

In the meantime, the spacecraft – it seems – are in good spirits.

What is your position in relation to Earth right now?

I’m about 13.5 light hours from Earth, or 14,570,000,000km. Remember, I travel about 1,300,000km each day!

I am in the southern skies, at right ascension 19h50m45.6s and declination -54°49'12" – about halfway between the stars η Ophiuchus and α Pavo.

Here’s another way to think about my position. Take any sized ball (cricket, football, etc.) and hold it at a distance where it just covers the sun’s disc. You now have the basis for a scale model of the solar system.

If the sun were the size of whatever ball you are using, your eyeball is now at the scaled distance of Earth, or one Astronomical Unit (AU). Using this scale, I am about 97 times as far from the ball as your eyeball.

What is the most significant thing you have taught us about the solar system?

That is a very difficult question. Most of what we know about the giant planets comes from our data. That said, later work based on the Cassini and Galileo missions has clarified several mysteries we Voyagers first uncovered.

From simple things – such as allowing better mass estimates to be calculated for the planets and their moons, and discovering new moons during every planetary encounter – to things as amazing as Io’s volcanoes, Saturn’s kinked rings, shepherd moons – which orbit near Saturn’s rings – and ring spokes, to unexpectedly vigorous weather on Neptune.

CONTINUE READING: www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1701591

[auntym]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20033940

22 October 2012

The maths that made Voyager possible[/color]

By Christopher Riley and Dallas Campbell BBC Four


In 1961, mathematics graduate Michael Minovitch decided to take on the hardest problem in celestial mechanics - the "three body problem".


Nasa's Voyager spacecraft have enthralled everyone with their exploits at the edge of the Solar System, but their launch in 1977 was only possible because of some clever maths and the persistence of a PhD student who worked out how to slingshot probes into deep space.

On the 3 October, 1942, the nose cone of an early V2 test rocket soared high above the north German coast before falling back to a crash-landing in the Baltic Sea.

For the first time in history, an object built by humans had crossed the invisible Karman line, which marks the edge of space.

Astonishingly, within 70 years - just one human lifespan - we'd hurled another spacecraft right to the edge of the Solar System.

Today, 35 years after leaving Earth, Voyager 1 is 18.4 billion km (11.4 billion miles) from Earth and about to cross over the boundary marking the extent of the Sun's influence, where the solar wind meets interstellar space.

Sometime in the next five years, it will likely break through this so called "bowshock" and head out into the galaxy beyond. Its twin, Voyager 2, having flown past all the outer giant planets, should pass over into interstellar not long after.
Continue reading the main story

It's easy to take this monumental achievement for granted, but the gateway to the outer Solar System remained shut for the first 20 years of the space age.

In 1957, as Sputnik 1 became the first engineered object to orbit our home planet, mission planners started to look towards other worlds to propel their probes.

Spacecraft were quickly dispatched to the Moon, Venus and Mars. But there was one major limiting factor to reaching more distant destinations.

For a voyage to the outer planets, you must escape the gravitational pull of the Sun, and that demands a very large rocket indeed. And given what an "uphill" gravitational struggle it would be to reach them, such a journey to the furthest planet - Neptune, more than four billion km (2.5 billion miles) away - could easily take 30 or 40 years.

At the time, Nasa couldn't guarantee a spacecraft for more than a few months of operational life, and so the outer planets were considered out of reach.

That was until a 25-year-old mathematics graduate called Michael Minovitch came along in 1961.

Excited by UCLA's new IBM 7090 computer, the fastest on Earth at the time, Minovitch decided to take on the hardest problem in celestial mechanics: the "three body problem".
Jupiter, Nasa The issue was being able to reach the outer planets in practical timeframe

The three bodies it refers to are the Sun, a planet and a third object such as an asteroid or comet all travelling through space with their gravities acting on each other. The problem is predicting exactly how the gravity of the Sun and the planet will influence the third object's trajectory.

CONTINUE READING: www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20033940

[auntym]

The deep space probe is on the verge of interstellar space as it passes a through region of high speed ions leaving the heliosphere and interstellar cosmic rays entering.
Credit: NASA / JPL


CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO

www.space.com/18755-voyager-crosses-magnetic-super-highway-in-space-video.html?cid=dlvr.it

[auntym]

theconversation.edu.au/voyager-1-is-leaving-the-solar-system-but-the-journey-continues-11184

14 December 2012, 6.33am AEST

Voyager 1 is leaving the solar system, but the journey continues

Voyager 1 has come across an unexpected region of the solar system – a “magnetic superhighway”. NASA

At 18.5 billion kilometres from Earth, the Voyager 1 space probe is the most distant human-made object ever to leave our planet.

And now the spacecraft, which was launched in September 1977, has discovered a new region at the edge of our solar system.

Voyager 1 is now entering what space scientists think is the final region of the “heliosphere” – the bubble of charged particles the sun blows around itself – before it reaches interstellar space.

For a spacecraft that’s now in the darkest reaches of the solar system, it’s easy to forget its mission is really all about the sun.

On Earth, we are at the mercy of solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and the vast amounts of electromagnetic energy and particles those phenomena fling our way. We can’t see these particles, but they can take out power grids and exposed satellites.

There are several missions close to the sun, including NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is studying the dynamics of the sun, 36,000km from Earth. Questions of interest include: where does the sun’s energy come from? And how is it stored and released in the sun’s atmosphere?

Voyager 1 is at the other end of the solar system, where the solar wind starts to meet with particles and magnetic fields from outside the solar system. And it seems that the interaction is more complex than we could have predicted.

CONTINUE READING: theconversation.edu.au/voyager-1-is-leaving-the-solar-system-but-the-journey-continues-11184

[swamprat]

NASA denies reports its Voyager spacecraft has left the solar system
NASA says Voyager 1 is close to interstellar space but hasn’t made it yet
By Michael Cooney,Layer 8
on Wed, 03/20/13 - 4:46pm.



The event certainly would be momentous for the space exploration world - the first spacecraft to actually leave our solar system - but NASA says despites reports to the contrary its Voyager 1 has not left our realm -- just yet that is.

"The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA's Voyager 1 has left the solar system," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space. In December 2012, the Voyager science team reported that Voyager 1 is within a new region called 'the magnetic highway' where energetic particles changed dramatically. A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space, and that change of direction has not yet been observed."

The reports come from research published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters (GRL). According to reports the debate on whether or not the craft has left the solar system revolves around what data the system is sending back about its surroundings. How those data are interpreted to be precise.

From a BBC report on the research: "Voyager has been detecting a rise in the number of high-energy particles, or cosmic rays, coming towards it from interstellar space, while at the same time recording a decline in the intensity of energetic particles coming from behind, from our Sun. A big change occurred on 25 August last year, which the GRL paper's authors say was like a "heliocliff". "Within just a few days, the heliospheric intensity of trapped radiation decreased, and the cosmic ray intensity went up as you would expect if it exited the heliosphere," explained Prof Bill Webber from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. Prof Weber acknowledges there is an on-going debate about the probe's status.

NASA said from January 2009 to January 2012, there had been a gradual increase of about 25% in the amount of galactic cosmic rays Voyager was encountering but beginning on May 7, 2012 the cosmic ray hits have increased five percent in a week and nine percent in a month, NASA said.

"The latest data indicate that we are clearly in a new region where things are changing more quickly. It is very exciting. We are approaching the solar system's frontier," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology said at the time. "The laws of physics say that someday Voyager will become the first human-made object to enter interstellar space, but we still do not know exactly when that someday will be."

www.networkworld.com/community/blog/nasa-denies-reports-its-voyager-spacecraft-has-left-solar-system

[lois]

swamprat.... thank you for posting this. Seems like I have waited a lifetime already . Never forget the day it went up..

Why would NASA want to keep the where about's of Voyager 1 anyway? When they lost contact I was so afraid that it was all over and we would not hear of it again..

[swamprat]

Thanks, Lois. I find the flight of the Voyagers fascinating. The distance they've traveled is astounding--yet, to think it's taken us 35 years to get this far just highlights how vast our star system is.

It's amazing we are still getting scientific data from these craft; they are learning more every day about the characteristics of the edge of our system and deep space.

A few more details:

Voyager 1

Distance from Earth 18,473,326,265 KM
123.48655886 AU
(11,479,000,000MI)

Distance from the Sun 18,503,705,950 KM
123.68963451 AU

Roundtrip Light Time from the Sun 34:14:00
hh:mm:ss

The chart above is a real-time odometer of Voyager 1's distance from the Earth and the Sun in astronomical units (AU) and kilometers (KM).

They estimate that the spacecraft will have enough electrical power to continue collecting data and communicating it back to Earth through 2020, and possibly through 2025.

[lois]

I hoped something extraordinary would happen before it fizzles away. Ten years is a long time yet. It is so hard to believe it has traveled thus far. How far and how long did we think it would travel and last?

Making it to the outer planets was amazing, when you think back to our technology in 77 compared to today. Keep a posting Paul.

[lois]

1189: Voyager 1
explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
< PrevComic #1189 (March 22, 2013)Next >
Voyager 1

Title text: So far Voyager 1 has 'left the Solar System' by passing through the termination shock three times, the heliopause twice, and once each through the heliosheath, heliosphere, heliodrome, auroral discontinuity, Heaviside layer, trans-Neptunian panic zone, magnetogap, US Census Bureau Solar System statistical boundary, Kuiper gauntlet, Oort void, and crystal sphere holding the fixed stars.
[edit]Explanation

Voyager 1 is a U.S. space probe launched in 1977 to study the outer reaches of the Solar System and beyond. Popular press has on several occasions announced that it “has left the solar system” at each point when a boundary has been confirmed or a major event has taken place. This underscores the fact that there is no strictly defined and recognizable boundary of the solar system, or at least we haven't found one yet.
The alt-text lists several such possible boundaries, together with fictive humorous ones:
The termination shock – the point in the heliosphere where the solar wind slows down to subsonic speed (relative to the star) because of interactions with the local interstellar medium.
The heliopause – the theoretical boundary where the Sun’s solar wind is stopped by the interstellar medium.
The heliosphere – a region of space dominated by Earth’s Sun, a sort of bubble of charged particles in the space surrounding the Solar System.
The heliosheath – the region of the heliosphere beyond the termination shock.
Heliodrome – yet another composition of helios "sun," here together with dromos "course". There is no astronomical object with this name, but it has been used variously in other contexts. One that became famous is a sports hall which was used as a concentration camp in the Bosnian war, see Heliodrom camp.
Auroral discontinuity - another fictitious astronomic object, for auroral see Aurora (astronomy).
Heaviside layer – a layer of ionized gas occurring between roughly 90–150 km (56–93 mi) above the ground in the Earth's atmosphere. Popularly recognized for its use as a reference to Heaven in the writings of T. S. Eliot adapted into Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats.
Trans-Neptunian panic zone – this fictional zone combines the word from two subject: “Trans–Neptunian” is used in astronomy to describe stuff that occurs beyond the planet Neptune. In Outdoor education the “panic zone” is the opposite of the comfort zone when trying to learn new stuff.
Magnetogap – part of an ignition system.
US Census Bureau Solar System statistical boundary – a fictive boundary defined by the United States Census Bureau, similarly to how it defines census areas for the purpose of processing statistical data about regions in the United States.
Kuiper gauntlet – this is a play on the Kuiper belt, which is a region of the Solar System beyond the planets, extending from the orbit of Neptune (at 30 AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun, notable for being full of asteroids; replacing the word “belt” with “gauntlet (glove)” (often spelled 'gantlet') which is a protective glove as well as “gauntlet (punishment)” which is a medieval punishment where one would be forced to run through two lines of men who would hit the punishee.
Oort void – refers to the Oort cloud, a gigantic “cloud” of materials (mainly composed of ice) which ends around a light-year from The Sun and is deemed the (current) “edge” of the solar system.
Crystal sphere holding the fixed stars – this refers to historical ideas about the universe, particularly the Ptolemaic system, in which the stars were supposed to be fixed on a large crystal sphere around the Earth. It might also be referencing "The Crystal Spheres", a short story by David Brin, in which humanity's first interstellar ship shatters a previously undetected, protective barrier around the solar system. It may also be a reference to the Dungeons and Dragons setting "Spelljammer".
See also Voyager over the “heliocliff,” but Solar System transition mysterious article on Arstechnica.
[edit]Transcript www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1189:_Voyager_1 It did not copy photo. take alook

[lois]

The above did not copy and past the opening drawing. This is why I never copy and paste.
I have waited for voyager to go out and beyond ever since it left earth. Years ago they said it had left our solar system. I was so happy and told everyone I knew. then recently they told it had left our solar system again. I got my answer when someone posted this on FB. here is the opening drawing. No one knows where the solar system ends.

www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1189:_Voyager_1

Every time they lose contact with it.. it scares me to death..

[skywalker]

I think if it went out past the farthest of our planets it would be out of our solar system. It did that a long time ago.

[lois]

Jun 27, 2013 22:06:42 GMT -6 skywalker said:

I think if it went out past the farthest of our planets it would be out of our solar system. It did that a long time ago.

Right on.. Any thing beyond our sun's gravity would be out of our system. Or we would be pulling in who knows what all.

[auntym]

www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/06/voyager-spacecraft-enters-a-strange-mysterious-region-11-billion-miles-from-earth-upending-long-stan.html

June 28, 2013

Voyager Spacecraft Enters a Strange, Mysterious Region 11 Billion Miles from Earth --Upending Long-Standing Theories

The Daily Galaxy via NASA, Wired, and the LA Times

Image credit: Southwest Research Institute




Launched 36 years ago, the Voyager 1 spacecraft speeds a rate of about a million miles a day entering a bizarre and mysterious region more than 11 billion miles from Earth that scientists are struggling to make sense of. It's a region where the fierce solar winds have all but vanished and pieces of atoms blasted across the galaxy by ancient supernovae drift into the solar system, the NASA probe is causing scientists to question some long-standing theories on the nature of our solar system and life beyond its cold dark edge dubbed the "magnetic highway" --a newly discovered area of the heliosphere, the vast bubble of magnetism that shields the solar system from deadly cosmic rays.
Scientists had long envisioned this outermost layer of the solar systems, the heliosheath, to be a curved, distinct boundary separating the solar system from the rest of the Milky Way where three things would happen: The sun's solar winds would become quiet; galactic cosmic rays would bombard Voyager; and the direction of the dominant magnetic field would change significantly because it would be coming from interstellar space, not the sun.

“The models that have been thought to predict what should happen are all incorrect,” said physicist Stamatios Krimigis of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, who is lead author of one of three new papers on Voyager appearing in Science on June 27. “We essentially have absolutely no reliable roadmap of what to expect at this point.”

Voyager 1 entered the edge of the solar wind in 2003, when the spacecraft’s instruments indicated that particles around it were moving subsonically, having slowed down after traveling far from the sun. Then, toward the end of July 2012, Voyager 1's instruments reported that solar winds had suddenly dropped by half, while the strength of the magnetic field almost doubled, according to the studies. Those values then switched back and forth five times before they became fixed on Aug. 25. Since then, solar winds have all but disappeared, but the direction of the magnetic field has barely budged. This transition happened extremely fast, in a matter of a few days.

CONTINUE READING: www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/06/voyager-spacecraft-enters-a-strange-mysterious-region-11-billion-miles-from-earth-upending-long-stan.html

[auntym]

www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/17/voyager-leaves-solar-system-nasa?CMP=twt_gu

Is Voyager 1 really out of the solar system?

Scientists split over whether Nasa probe has finally left the solar system after 36 years

Edward Helmore
The Observer, Saturday 17 August 2013


On a mission: Voyager pictured in 1979. Photograph: Time & Life Pictures/ Getty


It's 36 years since Voyager 1 was dispatched in 1977 on a mission to send back images of Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere and volcanic eruptions on one of its moons, Io. Then it was due to travel on to Saturn to examine that planet's intricate system of rings and moons. But after travelling more than 11bn miles, where is Voyager now? No one, it seems, knows for sure.

Nasa scientists including Edward Stone, the father of the programme at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, say Voyager 1 has yet to pass beyond the reach of our sun's radiation. But a controversial study published last week in the Astrophysical Journal claims Nasa scientists misinterpreted magnetic field data and the satellite passed beyond the boundary known as the heliosheath a year ago. Put another way, Voyager 1 has left the solar system.

According to Marc Swisdak, an astrophysics researcher at the University of Maryland and lead author of the study, Voyager 1 made that giant leap on 27 July 2012, when it recorded a permanent drop in heliosphere-produced particles and an increase in galactic cosmic rays from outside the solar system.

"Our three lines of data are consistent with Voyager being outside the solar system," Swisdak told the Observer last week. "There's a class of particles generated within the solar system and we're not seeing them any more. Then there's the question of the magnetic field. You can get outside the solar system without seeing too much of a shift in the data." As Voyager clears the distortion, he says, the magnetic data will begin to conform.

"This is the first opportunity to take actual direct measurements of the particles and the magnetic fields," said Swisdak. "Instead of a indirect, complicated chains of arguments, we can say what's actually out there – and that's something rare in astronomy. Voyager is allowing us to see what's really out there."

CONTINUE READING: www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/17/voyager-leaves-solar-system-nasa?CMP=twt_gu

[auntym]

www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/13/sound-interstellar-space-nasa-voyager-1-spacecraft_n_3919983.html

Sound Of Interstellar Space Captured For First Time Ever By Voyager 1 Spacecraft (VIDEO)

Space.com | By Miriam Kramer
Posted: 09/13/2013




Thanks to NASA's far-flung Voyager 1 spacecraft, now exploring the final frontier beyond our solar system, humanity can tune into the sounds of interstellar space.

Scientists announced today (Sept. 12) that Voyager 1 left the solar system in August 2012 after 35 years of spaceflight, making it the first craft ever to reach interstellar space. No other manmade object has ever travelled so far away from its home planet.

To mark the occasion, NASA unveiled the first Voyager 1 recording of the sound of interstellar space, offering the probe's strange, otherwordly take on its new frontier. The sounds are produced by the vibration of dense plasma, or ionized gas; they were captured by the probe's plasma wave instrument, NASA officials wrote in a video description. [Voyager 1's Journey to Interstellar Space: A Photo Tour]

"When you hear this recording, please recognize that this is an historic event. It's the first time that we've ever made a recording of sounds in interstellar space," Don Gurnett, principle investigator for the Voyager plasma wave investigation, said in a press conference today.

Researchers used the plasma data to infer that Voyager 1 first came into contact with the interstellar medium, effectively taking humanity between the stars, on or around Aug. 25, 2012.

"There were two times the instrument heard these vibrations: October to November 2012 and April to May 2013," NASA officials wrote. "Scientists noticed that each occurrence involved a rising tone. The dashed line indicates that the rising tones follow the same slope. This means a continuously increasing density."

Voyager 1's plasma sensor broke in 1980, so scientists had to get creative, and a little lucky, to figure this out. A massive solar eruption in March 2012 arrived at the location of Voyager 1 about 13 months later, making the plasma around the probe vibrate, NASA officials said.

That vibration helped researchers understand the density of the plasma, determining that it was 40 times more dense than measurements taken in the outer layer of the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles and magnetic fields that the sun puffs out around itself.

The observed density matched up very well with what researchers expected to find in interstellar space.

CONTINUE READING: www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/13/sound-interstellar-space-nasa-voyager-1-spacecraft_n_3919983.html

[lois]

Wow that is music to my ears. I have waited all these years to hear a video like this one.
thanks for posting auntym.

[auntym]

www.space.com/26041-nasa-voyager-probes-solar-system-legacy.html?cmpid=514648_20140529_24903336

NASA's Voyager 1 & 2 Probes Still Healthy After Nearly 4 Decades in Space

by Douglas Messier, Space.com Contributor
May 29, 2014



An artist concept of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft leaving the solar system to enter interstellar space.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


NASA's Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft are still going strong after nearly 37 years in space.

"Both spacecraft are still operating, still very healthy. I guess as healthy as we are at the table right now," Suzanne Dodd, the Voyager project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said, drawing a big laugh from the audience at the SpaceFest VI conference in Pasadena, California, on May 11.

Dodd was fresh out of college in 1985 when JPL recruited her as it geared up for Voyager 2's upcoming encounter with Uranus. Nearly 30 years later, she is project manager of the Voyager Interstellar Mission ( www.space.com/22784-voyager-1-spacecraft-interstellar-space-complete-coverage.html ) under which the two spacecraft continue to explore the vast expanse of space beyond the planets. [Photo Timeline: Voyager's Journey into Interstellar Space] www.space.com/22778-voyager-1-spacecraft-interstellar-space-photo-timeline.html

Dodd was actually the youngster on the Voyager reunion panel. She was joined by Voyager Project Scientist Ed Stone and retired Voyager Mission Design Manager Charley Kohlhase, who were both on the project when it was in the planning stages in the early 1970s.

When the Voyagers were launched in 1977, NASA expected them to last four or five years, long enough to get them through close encounters with Jupiter and Saturn. But, they just kept going and going.

Voyager 2 went on to flybys of Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989. It is now about 105 astronomical units from Earth. (One AU is the average distance between the Earth and sun, about 92 million miles.) Voyager 1, which flew out of the plane of the solar system after its 1980 flyby of Saturn, is in interstellar space at 127 AUs.

Stone and Kohlhase recalled their astonishment when an image showing two exploding volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io came into JPL late on a Friday afternoon in March 1979. The plumes went hundreds of miles above the surface, and the fallout covered an area the size of France.

WATCH VIDEO & CONTINUE READING: www.space.com/26041-nasa-voyager-probes-solar-system-legacy.html?cmpid=514648_20140529_24903336

[swamprat]

Confirmed: Voyager 1 in Interstellar Space

By Mike Wall, Senior Writer | July 08, 2014



New data collected by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft have helped scientists confirm that the far-flung probe is indeed cruising through interstellar space, the researchers say.

Voyager 1 made headlines around the world last year when mission scientists announced that the probe had apparently left the heliosphere — the huge bubble of charged particles and magnetic fields surrounding the sun — in August 2012.
They came to this conclusion after analyzing measurements Voyager 1 made in the wake of a powerful solar eruption known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME. The shock wave from this CME caused the particles around Voyager 1 to vibrate substantially, allowing mission scientists to calculate the density of the probe's surroundings (because denser plasma oscillates faster.)

This density was much higher than that observed in the outer layers of the heliosphere, allowing team members to conclude that Voyager 1 had entered a new cosmic realm. (Instellar space is emptier than areas near Earth, but the solar system thins out dramatically near the heliosphere's edge.)

The CME in question erupted in March 2012, and its shock wave reached Voyager 1 in April 2013. After these data came in, the team dug up another, much smaller CME-shock event from late 2012 that had initially gone unnoticed. By combining these separate measurements with knowledge of Voyager 1's cruising speed, the researchers were able to trace the probe's entry into interstellar space to August 2012.

And now mission scientists have confirmation, in the form of data from a third CME shock, which Voyager 1 observed in March of this year, NASA officials announced Monday (July 7).

"We're excited to analyze these new data," Don Gurnett of the University of Iowa, the principal investigator of Voyager 1's plasma wave instrument, said in a statement. "So far, we can say that it confirms we are in interstellar space."
Interstellar space begins where the heliosphere ends. But by some measures, Voyager 1 remains inside the solar system, which is surrounded by a shell of comets known as the Oort Cloud.

While it's unclear exactly how far away from Earth the Oort Cloud lies, Voyager 1 won't get there for quite a while. NASA scientists have estimated that Voyager 1 will emerge from the Oort Cloud in 14,000 to 28,000 years.
Like Voyager 1, Voyager 2 is still active and operational. It took a different route through the solar system and is expected to follow its twin into interstellar space a few years from now.

www.space.com/26462-voyager-1-interstellar-space-confirmed.html

[auntym]

proof.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/27/10-national-geographic-photos-on-voyager-that-explain-earth-to-extraterrestrials/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20160427pr-extraterrestrials&utm_campaign=Content&sf25187681=1

by Becky Harlan / proof.nationalgeographic.com/author/bharlan/
April 27, 2016

10 National Geographic Photos That Explain Earth to Extraterrestrials



The gold aluminum cover designed to protect the Voyager 1 and 2 gold-plated records from micrometeorite bombardment.
Photograph by Universal History Archive, UIG via Getty


In August and September of 1977 the twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched. Their mission was to explore our solar system “from Jupiter to Neptune” before eventually leaving it—heading into interstellar space and to the truly unexplored beyond. Fixed to each spacecraft was a gold-coated record containing information about life on Earth—like a message in a bottle for any intelligent life that might discover it.

The record contained, among other things, an audio montage titled “Sounds of Earth,” Beethoven’s Cavatina, greetings in 54 languages, and, most importantly to us, photographs that visually communicate facts about the physics, biology, sociology, and beauty of the pale blue dot we call home.

Originally the team (chaired by Carl Sagan) planned to include six photos: “The Earth, the DNA molecule, and a few shots of humans and animals.” But the images, which were converted into sound and written on the record, took up less space than anticipated. The capacity increased nearly 20-fold and 118 photos were included.

SEE PHOTOS & CONTINUE READING: proof.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/27/10-national-geographic-photos-on-voyager-that-explain-earth-to-extraterrestrials/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20160427pr-extraterrestrials&utm_campaign=Content&sf25187681=1

[swamprat]

Happy 40 (on August 20), Voyager II!

[auntym]

nasa.tumblr.com/post/164934300734/planets-as-seen-by-voyager

Planets: As Seen by Voyager

The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft explored Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune before starting their journey toward interstellar space. Here you’ll find some of those images, including “The Pale Blue Dot” – famously described by Carl Sagan – and what are still the only up-close images of Uranus and Neptune.

These twin spacecraft took some of the very first close-up images of these planets and paved the way for future planetary missions to return, like the Juno spacecraft at Jupiter, Cassini at Saturn and New Horizons at Pluto.

Jupiter



Photography of Jupiter began in January 1979, when images of the brightly banded planet already exceeded the best taken from Earth. They took more than 33,000 pictures of Jupiter and its five major satellites.



Findings:

*Erupting volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io, which has 100 times the volcanic activity of Earth.
*Better understanding of important physical, geological, and atmospheric processes happening in the planet, its satellites and magnetosphere.
*Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere with dozens of interacting hurricane-like storm systems.

***************************************

Saturn



The Saturn encounters occurred nine months apart, in November 1980 and August 1981. The two encounters increased our knowledge and altered our understanding of Saturn. The extended, close-range observations provided high-resolution data far different from the picture assembled during centuries of Earth-based studies.



Findings:

*Saturn’s atmosphere is almost entirely hydrogen and helium.
*Subdued contrasts and color differences on Saturn could be a result of more horizontal mixing or less production of localized colors than in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
*An indication of an ocean beneath the cracked, icy crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa.
*Winds blow at high speeds in Saturn. Near the equator, the Voyagers measured winds about 1,100 miles an hour.

**********************************************

Uranus



The Voyager 2 spacecraft flew closely past distant Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun. At its closest, the spacecraft came within 50,600 miles of Uranus’s cloud tops on Jan. 24, 1986. Voyager 2 radioed thousands of images and voluminous amounts of other scientific data on the planet, its moons, rings, atmosphere, interior and the magnetic environment surrounding Uranus.



Findings:

*Revealed complex surfaces indicative of varying geologic pasts.
*Detected 11 previously unseen moons.
*Uncovered the fine detail of the previously known rings and two newly detected rings.
*Showed that the planet’s rate of rotation is 17 hours, 14 minutes.
*Found that the planet’s magnetic field is both large and unusual.
*Determined that the temperature of the equatorial region, which receives less sunlight over a Uranian year, is nevertheless about the same as that at the poles.

*****************************************

Neptune



Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to observe the planet Neptune in the summer of 1989. Passing about 3,000 miles above Neptune’s north pole, Voyager 2 made its closest approach to any planet since leaving Earth 12 years ago. Five hours later, Voyager 2 passed about 25,000 miles from Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, the last solid body the spacecraft had the opportunity to study.



Findings:

*Discovered Neptune’s Great Dark Spot
*Found that the planet has strong winds, around 1,000 miles per hour
*Saw geysers erupting from the polar cap on Neptune’s moon Triton at -390 degrees Fahrenheit

CONTINUE READING: nasa.tumblr.com/post/164934300734/planets-as-seen-by-voyager

[auntym]

www.space.com/38036-celebrate-voyager-with-free-posters-and-scientist-stories.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social#?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2016twitterdlvrit

Celebrate Voyager Probes' 40th Anniversary with Scientist Stories, Free Posters

By Calla Cofield, Space.com Senior Writer
September 4, 2017



A free Voyager poster from a design team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory honors the decade in which the probes launched
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech



On Tuesday (Sept. 5) marks 40 years since the launch of the Voyager probes and the start of one of NASA's most ambitious programs to date, and the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) wants to share this extraordinary milestone with the public by offering two wonderful online resources.

The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft launched two weeks apart, on Aug. 20 and Sept. 5, 1977, on a mission to study the planets and, eventually, the edge of the solar system. Voyager 2 launched first, although the faster-moving Voyager 1 is now farther away from Earth than its sister-probe, and reached interstellar space in 2013. Voyager 2 is currently flying through the bubble of solar material that marks the boundary between the solar system and interstellar space.

You can bring the Voyager mission into your home by downloading and printing NASA's free Voyager posters. The posters are part of a series created by a team of visual strategists at JPL known as "The Studio." One of the Voyager posters is an image of a starry night sky, and another advertises the mission using the flamboyant design style of the 1970s, the decade when the probes launched. A third poster honors the probes' "grand tour" of the planets, on their way to the edge of the solar system.

In addition, members of the public can get an inside look at the Voyager mission from some of the scientists, engineers and other contributors to the mission over its more than 40-year history. JPL officials asked members of the Voyager team to write about their "most memorable Voyager moment," and posted them to the JPL website. The stories include reflections from people who were there when the mission began and people who joined when Voyager 1 was already nearly outside our solar system.

"For me, the highlights of Voyager were clearly the planetary encounters," wrote Ed Stone, a Voyager project scientist who has been with the mission since its inception. "All six of them were wonderful experiences where every day we saw and learned new things. We had a lifetime of discovery packed into each one.

"The eruptions on [Jupiter's moon] Io were the first direct evidence of active volcanoes elsewhere in the solar system," he continued. "Even though Io is much smaller than Earth, it had ten times as much volcanic activity. This astonishing discovery clearly signaled that we could expect many more surprises. And Voyager has certainly revealed a remarkable diversity of planets and their moons, rings and magnetic fields that has changed our view of the solar system."

Linda Spilker, who now serves at chief scientist for the Cassini mission at Saturn, wrote that her position with the Voyager mission was her first job out of college.

"I was the Infrared Interferometer Spectrometer and Radiometer (IRIS) experiment representative, the interface between the Voyager project and the IRIS scientists at Goddard [Space Flight Center in Maryland]," Spilker said. "I was the only woman in their group and very proud to represent them. What a thrill to work with such an incredible group of talented scientists. They mentored me and later invited me to join them as part of the Cassini infrared team."

There are more stories and more posters on the JPL website.

WATCH VIDEO & MORE POSTERS: www.space.com/38036-celebrate-voyager-with-free-posters-and-scientist-stories.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social#?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2016twitterdlvrit



Voyager Mission - 40th Anniversary Song 2017





Voyager Mission - 40th Anniversary Song 2017

Published on Jan 2, 2017
NASA played this at their conference on 24th August 2017 at the JPL, Pasadena to mark the 40th anniversary of the mission.

On Bandcamp: jamesstretten.bandcamp.com/

The two Voyager spacecraft left Earth in 1977. Voyager 1 left Earth in September 1977 and is now in interstellar space, travelling at 11miles/second. Aboard is the Golden Record - music from such composers and musicians as Bach, Beethoven, Chuck Berry and Louis Armstrong. Also, the record contains greetings from every nation on Earth and many sounds of our humanity. The inspiration for this came from the late Carl Sagan. One day, maybe 1000s of years in the future an alien civilisation may discover the Golden Record. Indeed it is expected that these spacecraft may wander the Universe for maybe millions of years!

The two Voyager spacecraft are expected to continue transmission of data to Earth until about 2025, when the transmission batteries will finally run out.