Voyager 1 & 2
The reason why they are the most awesome space probes in history
Weighing only about 734 kg each, they’ve managed to do what no other machine has ever done. Here I list the reasons why they were one of the best investments of NASA.
1 — Most of what we know about the Ice Giants came from V2's visits.
Uranus and Neptune, also called the Ice Giants, are the left outs of the solar system. They have only been visited once and by the same probe. Even Pluto has a mission that is focused entirely on its exploration (the New Horizons spacecraft) and Uranus and Neptune have never had one.
The most well known picture of Neptune was taken by V2 in 1989. So far it is the only good picture we have of this cold windy world. Even the Hubble Space Telescope couldn’t get a better view of the planet.
Considering that V2 visited the planet more than 24 years ago, the image isn’t up to date. The picture Hubble took in 1994 suggests that the big dark spot isn’t there anymore, leaving astronomers surprised. However, those storms are constantly appearing and disappearing on the atmosphere.
2 — They are still alive
As you may already know, v1 has entered interstellar space. It is the farthest man-made object ever and data points out that it will keep its title for a long time. The New Horizons spacecraft, which is currently working its way to Pluto, is also going to leave the solar system, but everything indicates it will not travel faster than V1, which means it will never pass the spacecraft.
V1 is the pioneer in interstellar exploration. However, the probes Pioneer 10 and 11 are also out of the solar system, but… they are dead. Operations of Pioneer 10 were discontinued on 3/31/97 because of power limitations. Pioneer 11 lost communications with Earth on November 30 1995. Both Voyager 1 and 2 are still strong and they have power for more a decade or so of explorations.
3 —They carry a kind of time capsule with it
Both Voyagers carry a golden record with it. The record contains several sounds, greetings, music, pictures and scientific knowledge in it.
The full list of all the content in the record can be found here. It is amazing to see those pictures and imagine what it would be like if an alien found it in a distant future. For example, the picture of this woman eating grapes is now billions of kilometers away representing, along with the other images, what it’s like here on Earth, what it’s like to eat, etc. She is now, whoever she is, representing humanity to aliens. I wonder if she knows her picture is out there in space… I hope so.
4 — They Took a Grand Planetary Tour
As I said in the first item, V2 was the first and only spacecraft that visited the Ice Giants. However, both probes have also visited Jupiter and Saturn!
NASA enjoyed a great opportunity. An opportunity that won’t come again in decades. All the gas giants were aligned at the time the twin probes departed, so they could all be visited in the shortest time possible. The tour would take much longer if the probes had to go to the other side of the sun to see a planet. NASA didn’t waste much time and sent them to make the most out of that alignment.
5 — V1 is traveling at 39,000 miles per hour
That’s the fastest any man made object in space is traveling right now. Even more modern spacecraft aren’t going that fast. Both voyagers used the gravitational slingshot technique more than once in different gas giants, that’s why they are traveling at such high speeds!
That’s it! I’ll keep up with the information received from interstellar space and I hope to learn more and more about that unexplored place. That is definitely a first step to a future human exploration to farther regions in space! Thanks for reading
