3/31/2023 0 Comments Space pioneer usma![]() ![]() ![]() Now, New Horizons is continuing on in the footsteps of the Pioneer and Voyager missions, as it’s only the fifth spacecraft ever launched on a path that will take it out of the solar system.īut unlike its interstellar spacecraft kin, New Horizons doesn’t carry a plaque or a golden record designed to teach aliens about the human race. Then, the probe pushed on into the depths of the Kuiper Belt, where it explored 486958 Arrokoth, a primordial world of ice and rock that looks like two pancakes stuck together. That didn't make the spacecraft's findings any less incredible, though.Īt Pluto, New Horizons found signs of ice volcanoes, giant mountains, and even a liquid water ocean. But months after New Horizons finally launched, Pluto was demoted from planet to dwarf planet. Scientists fought for decades to get a mission to Pluto approved. We’ll just have to hope record players are popular in other star systems. And as Carl Sagan noted: “The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space.” Both spacecraft contain copies of the Golden Record. However, NASA has prepared for the possibility that someone (or something) stumbles upon them along the way. Voyager 1’s course could take it close to another star in some 40,000 years, while Voyager 2 won’t get close to another star for some 300,000 years, according to NASA. The spacecraft may be zipping along at a breathtaking 35,000 mph, but they still will take many millennia to truly leave the solar system. That milestone was really just their first step on a long journey into the stars. Voyager 2 accomplished the same feat on November 5, 2018. On August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 reached the heliopause and entered what some consider interstellar space. And each spacecraft has now passed beyond the heliopause, a region where the Sun’s solar wind loses is sway. To this day, both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 remain in communication with NASA. It still remains the only spacecraft to see those two planets up close. Voyager 2 continued on past Saturn and encountered Neptune and Uranus. Meanwhile, Voyager 2, was sent on an even bolder mission to explore the outer planets. That choice made Voyager 1 veer off its grand tour of the outer planets and head up and away from the orbital plane of our solar system, putting in on course for interstellar space. But rather than continuing on to Neptune and Uranus, like Voyager 2 did, NASA decided to send Voyager 1 on a detour past Saturn’s moon Titan - the only other known world in the solar system with an atmosphere thick enough to host a rain cycle. Voyager 1 launched in 1977, made its flyby of Jupiter in 1979, and passed by Saturn in 1980. That path also meant that, after they’d completed their tour of our solar system, both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 would continue into interstellar space. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune were perfectly placed, allowing scientists to chart a course that would send the spacecraft by each of these gas giants. Half a century ago, NASA built its two identical Voyager spacecraft to capitalize on a rare alignment of the outermost planets that only happens once every 175 years. Pioneer 11 revealed what the ringed planet is made of, as well as identified new moons and a new ring around the gas giant. It made a flyby of Jupiter in 1974 before becoming the first mission to ever encounter Saturn in 1979. In fact, the mission continued to communicate with Earth for a total of 30 years, rather than the 21 months NASA initially planned for. ![]() So, after Pioneer 10 passed Jupiter in 1973, it still had ample power to keep going. No NASA spacecraft had ever launched with a nuclear-powered electrical source before. And the secret to its success was nuclear power. Pioneer 10 achieved the first flyby of Mars, the first trip through the asteroid belt, and the first flyby of Jupiter. Pioneer 10 and 11 were primarily intended to do humanity's first major reconnaisance of other planets in our solar system. In 1972, NASA hadn't even finished sending Apollo astronauts to the Moon yet when it started launching the first missions that would ultimately wind up in interstellar space. ![]()
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