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Mysteries of the Milky Way
Europa
Beyond Hubble
A look inside the universe
Apollo
Apollo 11Apollo 12Apollo 13Apollo 14Apollo 15Apollo 16Apollo 17In Memory of Alan ShepardAstronomy
Black HolesDark MatterAstronomy UpdatesAstrophysics
Quantum GravityQuantum MechanicsGeneral RelativityBlack Hole ThermodynamicsComments
Advertise With The StarGateFaster than light
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Mars Global SurveyorGalileoMars Polar Space ProbePioneer 10Mars PathfinderDeep Space 1StarDustVoyager 2CassiniMars Climate OrbiterUlyssesThe systems of our world
VenusMercuryEarthMarsJupiterSaturnUranusNeptunePlutoThe Missions to Mars|
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| VOYAGER 2 |
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| Voyager Mission Status March 3, 1999 Both Voyager spacecraft remain healthy and are continuing to explore the environment at the edge of the solar system, sending back data on particles, waves and fields from the far outer heliosphere, the outermost region of the Sun's influence. Instruments no longer collecting data and nonessential heaters on Voyager 2's scan platform were turned off in November 1998 as part of an effort to conserve electrical power margins and extend the spacecraft's lifetime well into the 21st century. Five instruments continue to gather and return data. Now 8.6 billion kilometers (5.3 billion miles) from Earth, the spacecraft is heading southward out of the ecliptic plane at a 48-degree angle, traveling at a speed of about 16 kilometers per second (about 35,500 mph).Currently, round-trip light time from Earth to Voyager 2 is about 16 hours. The ultraviolet spectrometer on Voyager 1's scan platform and nonessential heaters will be turned off in mid-2000 to conserve power. Distinguished from all other spacecraft as the most distant human-made satellite in space, Voyager 1 is now about 10.9 billion kilometers (6.8 billion miles) from Earth, and climbing northward out of Earth's vicinity at a 35-degree angle to the ecliptic plane. The spacecraft is traveling at a speed of about 17.3 kilometers per second (38,718 mph) with a current round-trip light time of about 20 hours. If the spacecraft's instruments are still operating when it reaches the heliopause - the theoretical dividing line between our solar system and interstellar space - Voyager 1 should be able to detect the change. Current estimates put the termination shock, which is like a wave front on the high sea or a boundary signifying the last vestiges of space influenced by the solar wind, at between 80 and 90 astronomical units from the Sun. (One astronomical unit is about 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles, Earth's distance from the Sun.) Voyager 1 is currently at about 73 astronomical units and expected to reach 80 astronomical units in 2001. -JPL |
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