Voyager: The world's most audacious space mission
This August and September, humankind's most audacious space mission(s) turns 40. Launched in 1977, the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts have, in the last 40 years, traversed 17+ billion kilometres. In 2013, Voyager 1 left the solar system and ventured into interstellar space, while Voyager 2 is currently in the "heliosheath" and headed towards infinity too. We take a look into their epic journey.
The birth of the Voyager missions
In summer 1965, calculations revealed that spacecrafts launched from Earth in the late-1970s would be able to visit the four giant outer planets by using each planet's gravity to slingshot towards another. This alignment which occurs every 176 years, gave birth to the Voyager missions.
The Voyager spacecrafts embark on humanity's greatest exploratory quest
On 20th August, 1977 Voyager 2 was launched into space from Cape Canaveral, and Voyager 1 followed shortly after on 5th September. Since then, the two spacecrafts have been on an epic journey of exploration, visiting Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. They have contributed to humanity's understanding of these strange worlds by sending back data and photos of unheard of phenomena.
The spacecrafts are still in daily contact with mission control
Even today, the two Voyager spacecrafts are in daily contact with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Voyager mission control centre in Pasadena, California. Radio signals take 38 hours to travel from Earth to Voyager 1 and back. For Voyager 2, it takes about 30 hours.
Taking human culture into the stars
Apart from their contribution to scientific knowledge, the Voyager spacecrafts have also been equipped with a gold-plated audio-visual disc which carries with it evidence of human existence and culture. With both the spacecrafts headed into the great unknown beyond the solar system, these golden records, designed to last a billion years, will give testimony to human existence should other intelligent life forms discover them.
Controversy surrounding the content of the golden records
While it was intended that the golden records would contain information about all of humanity and not just the United States, deadlines marred the records' potential. Not all of world culture was represented, and despite having Eastern music, one-third of the records' music is Western.
The people behind the Voyager missions
While hundreds of people were involved in the success of the Voyager missions, two names stand out - both are legends among space scientists. One of them is 80-year old Ed Stone who has been leading the Voyager mission since design and construction began in 1972. The other is world-renowned scientist Carl Sagan who turned the mission cultural by attaching the golden records.
"We have embarked on epic voyages"
"But the Voyager spacecraft will plunge on...destined to wander through eternity...and to complete its first cirmcumnavigation of the massive centre of the Milky Way a few hundred million years from now. We have embarked on epic voyages." - Carl Sagan, 1980.
