As you all know, Voyager-1 is the only human made craft which has become the farthest traveller in our space journey till date, and its 46 year journey has been quite wonderful.
Voyager-1 spacecraft was launched on September 5, 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Voyager-2 was also launched along with it. The motive of both these spacecraft was to continue their journey in our universe leaving the planets of the Solar System behind and explore other planets. And today, even after 46 years, it is crossing the boundaries of the Solar System and moving ahead in the outer space. It is a matter of great pride that this spacecraft made with such old technology is still looking at us and saying bye-bye and going away.
As you all know that Voyager-1 crossed the heliosphere on 25th August 2012 and entered the interstellar space and is currently 15 billion miles away from us. Due to old technology and huge distance, after so many years, its transmission system which converts the data into binary and then transmits it to us and whose name is FDS, has developed an unwanted defect. In November 2023, it sent some random sequences of binary codes to us which do not make any sense. NASA is trying its best to fix it and is engaged in that effort.
Before you start crying, let me tell you that our topic today is not the flaw in its FDS, if you still want to cry then you can check this blog — Voyager-1 transmission error . Jokes apart, Scientists have put something in Voyager-1 on end motion which can probably help us contact aliens, or they can see our earth, how?, because scientists got an idea that why don’t we put such a record in it which will have information about our earth and solar system, so that if there is any creature or alien in interstellar space then they can understand us and know that here in the solar system on a planet named Earth, a species named humans is living. This record is named the Golden Record, there are 115 different images in it. I think now you’re happy? So let’s move on to the main topic…
Capturing solar system by the Voyager-1 Camera
Voyager-1 has taken a lot of images of the planets of our solar system during its journey, some of them have been taken from close up, including Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto. Currently, only 4 of the 10 instruments of Voyager 1 are working. Because it gets power from Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs). But after so many years, to save its power and maintain contact with Voyager-1, the scientist focused the camera towards the sun on 14 February 1990 and took the last portrait of the solar system with the planets and then its camera was tied up forever. Here we have been showing you some close-up photos of the planets.
For more images you can check out NASA voyager image gallery
When Voyager-1’s camera was to be turned off, scientists took a portrait photo of the solar system which included images of Uranus, Neptune, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Earth and Sun, and yes the special image of earth “The Pale Blue Dot”, After taking this portrait, its camera was turned off forever to save energy. here is the image of this portrait and the planets….
So this was the story of the farthest travelling man-made space craft Voyager-1. Right now our contact with Voyager-1 has broken down but we will try our best to reprogram it. Don’t worry, it will definitely connect with us again. Stay connected with us, “keep reading and keep understanding”. And yes, don’t cry ……..
