Voyager

Voyager refers to the United States NASA interplanetary exploration program that produced two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, launched in 1977 to study the outer planets and, later, the edges of the solar system. Built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the probes were designed for extended missions guided by gravity assists that enabled them to visit multiple planets with minimal propulsion. Each spacecraft carries a suite of scientific instruments and a golden record intended as a time capsule for potential extraterrestrial civilizations.

The Voyager spacecraft are powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators and communicate with Earth via the Deep Space Network. Their instruments include imaging systems, magnetometers, plasma detectors, infrared and ultraviolet spectrometers, and detectors for cosmic rays and charged particles. The craft were originally tasked with exploring Jupiter and Saturn, their rings, and their major moons, but after successful flybys they continued to the outer planets and beyond.

Notable achievements include close-up observations of Jupiter and its moons, the discovery of volcanic activity on Io, and detailed data on Saturn’s rings and moons. Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have conducted flybys of Uranus and Neptune, providing the first close views of those distant planets and their satellite systems. In 2012, Voyager 1 entered interstellar space, followed by Voyager 2 in 2018, making them the most distant human-made objects and providing unprecedented measurements of the interstellar medium and heliospheric boundary regions.

Both probes carry the Golden Record, a phonograph record containing sounds and images intended to portray Earth’s diversity to any external discoverer. The missions continue to operate and return data, though power from the continuous RTGs is declining, limiting the instruments that can be kept active in the long term.