VOYAGER

By Jaiden
CONTENS PAGE
Page 3 fact 1
Page 4 fact 2
Page 5 fact 3
Page 6 fact 4
Page 7 fact 5
FACT 1
VOYAGER
The twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are exploring where nothing from Earth
has flown before. Continuing on their more-than-35-year journey since their
1977 launches, they each are much farther away from Earth and the sun
than Pluto. In August 2012, Voyager 1 made the historic entry into interstellar
space, the region between stars, filled with material ejected by the death of
nearby stars millions of years ago.
FACT 2
The mission objective of the Voyager Interstellar Mission VIM is to extend the
NASA exploration of the solar system beyond the neighbourhood of the
outer planets to the outer limits of the Sun's sphere of influence, and possibly
beyond. This extended mission is continuing to characterize the outer solar
system environment and search for the heliopause boundary, the outer limits
of the Sun's magnetic field and outward flow of the solar wind. Penetration
of the heilopause boundary between the solar wind and the interstellar
medium will allow measurements to be made of the interstellar fields,
particles and waves unaffected by the solar wind.
FACT 3












The VIM is an extension of the Voyager primary mission that was completed in 1989 with the
close flyby of Neptune by the Voyager 2 spacecraft. Neptune was the final outer planet visited
by a Voyager spacecraft Neptune was the final outer planet visited by a Voyager spacecraft.
Voyager 1 completed its planned close flybys of the Jupiter and Saturn planetary systems while
Voyager 2, in addition to its own close flybys of Jupiter and Saturn, completed close flybys of
the remaining two gas giants, Uranus and Neptune.


FACT 4
Its satellites were only supposed to last five years, but NASA is maintaining
contact with voyager 1 through the use of radio waves, a system that should
be viable well beyond the stretches of our solar system. The only real
problem is that it takes 16 hours for the radio waves to reach Earth, a number
that is continuously increasing as V1 gets farther and farther away.
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 aluminium jacket, together with a cartridge and a
needle.
FACT 5
Though Voyager 1's longevity could not have been predicted, scientists did
plan for it. When building the spacecraft, they used long-lasting plutonium
batteries for fuel, and those batteries are still going strong today. While
traveling, Voyagers 1 has turned off everything but its essential functions, and
at this rate, the batteries should last throughout the 2020s. Who knows what
discoveries Voyagers 1 might make in that time!