Top 10 Interesting Facts About NASA's Voyager-1 Space Probe:
1:Voyager 1 Has Three Nuclear Reactors:
NASA's Voyager-1 probe uses three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) in order to generate electricity to power its instruments. Each generator has 24 compressed plutonium-238 oxide pellets that generate heat through nuclear decay. When the craft was launched in 1977, the three generators’ combined output was about 470 Watts. The fuel pellets have a half-life of 87.7 years, which together with degradation of the thermocouples that conduct the heat, means that by the year 2025, the generators will not be able to provide power for all the on-board instruments.
2:More Than 10,000 Possible Trajectories Were Considered For This Mission:
Because of the complexity of using a “gravity assist” technique to propel Voyager 1 from Jupiter to Saturn and then on to interstellar space during its exploratory mission, NASA scientists considered thousands of potential trajectories for the probe. Ultimately, they chose a route for Voyager 1 that would ensure the completion of its primary mission to study the two giant planets before propelling it toward interstellar space.
3:The Third Craft To Reach Solar System-Escape Velocity:
After completing its planetary mission in November of 1980, Voyager 1 became one of only a handful of spacecraft to obtain enough velocity (about 17 km/sec) to escape from the solar system, the other craft being Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, and Voyager 2. Voyager 1 also had the fastest launch speed; it overtook Voyager 2 a few months after launch.
4:Voyager 1 Launched After Voyager 2:
NASA launched Voyager 1 on 5th September 1977, 16 days after the launch of Voyager 2. They did this because the Voyager mission was designed to take advantage of a rare configuration of the solar system’s giant planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. In this arrangement, which occurs roughly once every 175 years, the giants lined up in a way that would allow the probes to harness each planet’s gravitational forces to “swing” from one to the next with minimal self-propulsion. To accomplish this feat, the probes were launched on different trajectories. Voyager 2’s so-called slow trajectory would enable it to potentially visit all four giant planets, while Voyager 1’s faster trajectory would get it to Jupiter and Saturn before it headed into deep space. So, while Voyager 1 launched second, NASA knew all along it would take first place in the race to deep space, and they named it accordingly.
5:It Discovered The Source Of Saturn’s Excessive Heat:
Voyager 1 detected during the Saturn fly-by that the planet’s upper atmosphere contains only about 7% Helium. Investigators are surmising that the heavier Helium is sinking down through the less-dense Hydrogen in the planets’ atmosphere creating heat, which might explain why Saturn radiates more heat than it receives from the Sun.
6:It Discovered Volcanoes In The Jovian System:
At first, Scientists believed that Earth is the only body in the solar system on which active volcanoes are present. The image taken by Voyager 1 of an erupting volcano on Jupiter’s moon Io came as a major surprise. Voyager also discovered that material ejected from volcanoes on Io permeates the entire Jovian system since sulfur, oxygen, and sodium was detected by Voyager 1 right at the outer limits of Jupiter’s magnetosphere, which is the region of space around the system that is affected and influenced by Jupiter’s magnetic field.
7:Time Required To Receive Its Signals:
The position of Voyager-1 is nearly 12 billion miles from Earth and it takes approximately 16 hours and 38 minutes for scientists to receive data from the probe or for the spacecraft to receive signals from Earth. Voyager continues to send a steady stream of information to NASA scientists, including data on the direction of gravitational fields around it and the speed of surrounding solar winds.
8:The Final photograph By Voyager 1:
After Voyager-1’s encounter with Saturn in 1980, NASA scientists turned off the probe’s cameras to save its energy. But as it approached the edge of our solar system, they on February 14, 1990, instructed Voyager to turn its cameras back on and take a last look over its shoulder at the planets. In a series of 60 images, Voyager 1 returned the only “family portrait” of our solar system, including the sun, Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. The photos were the last Voyager-1 ever took; its cameras were again turned off to maintain maximal energy reserves as the craft prepared to become the first manmade object to reach interstellar space.
9:Current Position Of Voyager 1:
Many scientists now accept that on August 25, 2012, the probe officially exited the solar system. This was decided based upon the increase of the average density of electrons in the craft’s vicinity, which in turn is based on a solar outburst that had occurred March of 2012, and the frequency of plasma oscillations caused by the outburst.
10:Voyager 1 Carries A Message:
Voyager 1 space probe carries a gold-plated audio-visual disc. The disc carries photos of the Earth and its lifeforms, a range of scientific information, spoken greetings from people such as the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the United States and a medley, "Sounds of Earth," that includes the sounds of whales, a baby crying, waves breaking on a shore, and a collection of music including works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Blind Willie Johnson, Chuck Berry, and Valya Balkanska. Other Eastern and Western classics are also included, as well as various performances of indigenous music from around the world.
Moreover, its golden record carries an hour-long recording of the brain waves of Carl Sagan’s wife, Ann Druyan. The recording of her brain activity was made while she was thinking about the diverse topics such as Earth’s history, everyday challenges faced by various previous civilizations, and the emotions people experience when they fall in love.
The record also contains greetings in 55 different languages.
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