Voyager 1

[Slim]

Few things are as awe-inspiring to me as Voyager 1.

When I was 10 or 11, I had a book that described NASA's intention to launch a probe that would take advantage of a planetary alignment that only takes place once every 176 years. This was due to happen in the late '70s and back then the proposed mission was known as the "Grand Tour".



So Voyager 1 was launched in September 1977. it's currently about 14.5 billion miles away and travelling at over 10 miles per second; in the 24 hours or so that it's taken me to get round to typing this it's become another 900,000 miles or so distant from Earth. It left our solar system and entered interstellar space nearly 10 years ago. It is the most distant man-made object.

Despite this NASA still receives data from it, and can still send instructions from Earth - for example to switch instruments off, or realign its antenna. But it's entering the last couple of years of its useful life now - not because of the distance, but because it's running out of power. It converts heat from decaying plutonium into electricity to power its instruments, antiquated 1970s onboard computer and transmitters, and the stuff only lasts so long.

Its cameras were switched off in 1990, to save memory (the onboard computer only has 70k).

I find it a bit eerie to think about it out there in the bleak coldness of space.

[Slim]

What's even stranger to me is the thought that unless it collides with something, which is (literally) astronomically unlikely, it will just keep going for tens of thousands of years in the vast emptiness of interstellar space.

It's not actually travelling in the direction of the nearest star but if it was, even at a bit over 10 miles per second - I've just done the sums - it would take roughly another 75,000 years to get there.

[David L]

What's even stranger to me is the thought that unless it collides with something, which is (literally) astronomically unlikely, it will just keep going for tens of thousands of years in the vast emptiness of interstellar space.

It's not actually travelling in the direction of the nearest star but if it was, even at a bit over 10 miles per second - I've just done the sums - it would take roughly another 75,000 years to get there.

I thought every object, like a star or planet, exerted some gravitational 'pull'. Would it not, naturally, gravitate to the nearest star?

[David L]

Any period artefacts on board? I was thinking, maybe a pair of Brutus Gold flares, 'Jeans On' by David Dundas on 7" single, Brut aftershave and a script from an episode of Love Thy Neighbour......well, perhaps if it had been a Brit venture   

[Slim]

What's even stranger to me is the thought that unless it collides with something, which is (literally) astronomically unlikely, it will just keep going for tens of thousands of years in the vast emptiness of interstellar space.

It's not actually travelling in the direction of the nearest star but if it was, even at a bit over 10 miles per second - I've just done the sums - it would take roughly another 75,000 years to get there.

I thought every object, like a star or planet, exerted some gravitational 'pull'. Would it not, naturally, gravitate to the nearest star?

Every object with mass will have an influence but at those distances the pull is very weak indeed, especially compared to the momentum of an object the size of a car travelling at ~ 35,000 mph.

[David L]

What's even stranger to me is the thought that unless it collides with something, which is (literally) astronomically unlikely, it will just keep going for tens of thousands of years in the vast emptiness of interstellar space.

It's not actually travelling in the direction of the nearest star but if it was, even at a bit over 10 miles per second - I've just done the sums - it would take roughly another 75,000 years to get there.

I thought every object, like a star or planet, exerted some gravitational 'pull'. Would it not, naturally, gravitate to the nearest star?

Every object with mass will have an influence but at those distances the pull is very weak indeed, especially compared to the momentum of an object the size of a car travelling at ~ 35,000 mph.

Gotcha. What force gives (gave) Voyager its speed? I understand it's travelling in a vacuum so there is no opposing force. Has its speed increased the further away from us it gets?

[Slim]

Any period artefacts on board? I was thinking, maybe a pair of Brutus Gold flares, 'Jeans On' by David Dundas on 7" single, Brut aftershave and a script from an episode of Love Thy Neighbour......well, perhaps if it had been a Brit venture 

Yes there is something ..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record

Two phonograph records (not vinyl, but gold-plated copper) with music, a message from Jimmy Carter and images encoded on them. I've just read that the team responsible for this, led by Carl Sagan, wanted to put Here Comes The Sun on the record. But EMI wouldn't let them, even though the ex-Beatles liked the idea.

[Slim]

What's even stranger to me is the thought that unless it collides with something, which is (literally) astronomically unlikely, it will just keep going for tens of thousands of years in the vast emptiness of interstellar space.

It's not actually travelling in the direction of the nearest star but if it was, even at a bit over 10 miles per second - I've just done the sums - it would take roughly another 75,000 years to get there.

I thought every object, like a star or planet, exerted some gravitational 'pull'. Would it not, naturally, gravitate to the nearest star?

Every object with mass will have an influence but at those distances the pull is very weak indeed, especially compared to the momentum of an object the size of a car travelling at ~ 35,000 mph.

Gotcha. What force gives (gave) Voyager its speed? I understand it's travelling in a vacuum so there is no opposing force. Has its speed increased the further away from us it gets?

Well - I'm typing at the very boundary of my ignorance here but as far as I recall / am aware, the basic idea was to use gravitational pull of the planets it passed as a sort of slingshot.

Just found a nice piece on that here:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/07/30/how-fast-is-voyager-1-traveling-right-now/

It's actually slowing down, but only very slightly (and by a bit less all the time as it gets more distant from the Sun).

[Slim]

Oddly enough, a day after I started this thread:

Voyager 1 Space Probe Is Suddenly Sending NASA Wacky Data

https://gizmodo.com/voyager-1-spacecraft-nasa-weird-data-1848949154

[R6GYY]

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/golden-record-cover/

You can buy replicas of this I see. I imagine that the audio content is available to listen to for free somewhere.

[R6GYY]

Here is the audio released by Nasa on Soundcloud if anyone is interested.

https://soundcloud.com/nasa/sets/golden-record-sounds-of

[Slim]

This just came up in my YouTube suggestions.. it's five years old but a nice piece about the Voyager missions.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Just occasionally, when I stretch my mind in a certain way thinking about this, I experience a strange pit of the stomach sensation connected to trying to fathom that space never ends and that Voyager may travel infinitely. It's not just vastness, it's forever, possibly but probably.

[Slim]

Since I started this thread, Voyager 1 has travelled about 280 million miles further away from Earth. But it could remain in communication range until about 2036.

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/frequently-asked-questions/

[Slim]

Just occasionally, when I stretch my mind in a certain way thinking about this, I experience a strange pit of the stomach sensation connected to trying to fathom that space never ends and that Voyager may travel infinitely. It's not just vastness, it's forever, possibly but probably.

It won't travel infinitely. Eventually, even if it never collides with anything, all of its atoms will decay and there'll be nothing left.

Supposedly there will come a time when nothing larger than an atomic particle exists in the entire Universe.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a43129531/how-will-the-universe-end/