There’s something kind of amazing that Voyager 1 is not only the first man made craft to leave the confines of our solar system, but that NASA believes it will continue to function, sending data to back to us until around 2025.
Voyager 1 has been in operation for 36 years, and has traveled more than 16 Billion miles during that time. From John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington:
“Voyager has boldly gone where no probe has gone before, marking one of the most significant technological achievements in the annals of the history of science, and adding a new chapter in human scientific dreams and endeavors. Perhaps some future deep space explorers will catch up with Voyager, our first interstellar envoy, and reflect on how this intrepid spacecraft helped enable their journey.”
Perhaps even more amazing, the entire operations budget for the Voyager program, including both Voyager 1 & 2 spacecrafts has been less than $1 Billion. Not a bad bang for buck from a research perspective.
For more info on the Voyager program: http://www.nasa.gov/voyager
Read a Reddit AMA with the Voyager scientists and engineers: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1m9wke/were_scientists_and_engineers_on_nasas_voyager/
And some day, maybe in the late 23rd century, after the Klingons report a strange disturbance featuring a humongous space craft, and we’re all wearing pastel jumpsuits, we’ll know what’s up…
Full NASA Press Release after the jump. SCIENCE!
Continue reading “NASA’s Voyager 1 Leaves Our Solar System For Interstellar Space. V’Ger to return in 2273.”
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The Voyager spacecraft was launched in 1977, and on board NASA included a record with a series of recordings as our introduction to the galaxy. This spaceship is flying out past the outer reaches of our solar system, so it would take us quite a while to catch up to it if we wanted to take a listen to that record on board.