24 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
24 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "Voyager program"
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chunk: 1/6
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_program"
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category: "reference"
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T13:27:03.406597+00:00"
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instance: "kb-cron"
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---
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The Voyager program is an American scientific program that employs two interstellar probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment to explore the two gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and potentially also the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune—to fly near them while collecting data for transmission back to Earth. After Voyager 1 successfully completed its flyby of Saturn and its moon Titan, it was decided that Voyager 2 would continue on its pre-planned trajectory to fly by Uranus and Neptune.
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After the planetary flybys were complete, decisions were made to keep the probes in operation to explore interstellar space and the outer regions of the Solar System. On 25 August 2012, data from Voyager 1 indicated that it had entered interstellar space. On 5 November 2019, data from Voyager 2 indicated that it also had entered interstellar space. On 4 November 2019, scientists reported that on 5 November 2018, the Voyager 2 probe had officially reached the interstellar medium (ISM), a region of outer space beyond the influence of the solar wind, as did Voyager 1 in 2012. In August 2018, NASA confirmed, based on results by the New Horizons spacecraft, the existence of a "hydrogen wall" at the outer edges of the Solar System that was first detected in 1992 by the two Voyager spacecraft.
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As of 2026, both Voyagers are still in operation beyond the outer boundary of the heliosphere in interstellar space. As of 2024,Voyager 1 was moving with a velocity of 61,000 kilometers per hour (38,000 mph), or 17 km/s, (10.5 miles/second) relative to the Sun, and was 24.5 billion kilometers (164 AU) from the Sun. At the same time, Voyager 2 was moving with a velocity of 55,000 kilometers per hour (34,000 mph), or 15 km/s, relative to the Sun, and was 20.4 billion kilometers (12.7×10^9 mi) from the Sun.
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The two Voyagers are the only human-made objects to date that have passed into interstellar space — a record they will hold until at least the 2040s — and Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth.
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== History ==
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=== Mariner Jupiter-Saturn ===
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Voyager did things no one predicted, found scenes no one expected, and promises to outlive its inventors. Like a great painting or an abiding institution, it has acquired an existence of its own, a destiny beyond the grasp of its handlers.
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The two Voyager space probes were originally conceived as part of the Planetary Grand Tour planned during the late 1960s and early 70s that aimed to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Saturn's moon Titan, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. The mission originated from the Grand Tour program, conceptualized by Gary Flandro, an aerospace engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in 1964, which leveraged a rare planetary alignment occurring once every 175 years. This alignment allowed a craft to reach all outer planets using gravitational assists. The mission was to send several pairs of probes and gained momentum in 1966 when it was endorsed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. However, in December 1971, the Grand Tour mission was canceled when funding was redirected to the Space Shuttle program.
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In 1972, a scaled-down (four planets, two identical spacecraft) mission was proposed, utilizing a spacecraft derived from the Mariner series, initially intended to be Mariner 11 and Mariner 12. The gravity-assist technique, successfully demonstrated by Mariner 10, would be used to achieve significant velocity changes by maneuvering through an intermediate planet's gravitational field to minimize time towards Saturn. The spacecrafts were then moved into a separate program named Mariner Jupiter-Saturn (also Mariner Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus, MJS, or MJSU), part of the Mariner program, later renamed because it was thought that the design of the two space probes had progressed sufficiently beyond that of the Mariner family to merit a separate name.
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=== Voyager probes === |