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The Voyager I spacecraft was in the news once again in June as NASA was able to restore transmissions from all four of its temporarily disabled instruments. Launched way back in 1977 , the unmanned craft is now the most distant man-made object in the universe: 15.5 billion miles from Earth, and constantly increasing that distance by 38,000 miles an hour. Looking into resources from NASA and authoritative media sources, we have an update for you on what Voyager has achieved, and what might still be to come.
24/7 Wall St. Insights
- Voyager I gave the world its first close-up views of the outer planets and made numerous new discoveries.
- It has continued to transmit data about the furthest reaches of the Solar System and interstellar space.
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News You Can Use
Learning about space travel can inspire us and the young people we know to pursue STEM education and careers.
Keeping up with space missions like Voyager I can help us in several ways:
- It can help us understand the value of NASA programs and politically support its continued funding.
- We can inspire young people in our lives with an interest in STEM studies and careers.
- Investment strategies can be better informed when we have a wider base of knowledge in the field.
The Purpose of the Voyager Missions 
The Voyager missions took advantage of a rare alignment of the planets on the same side of the sun.
Once every 175 years most of the planets of the Solar System are arranged on the same side of the sun. NASA began working in the 1960s on sending a space probe on a grand tour of the outer planets when they were in this convenient configuration to explore in a single mission. Nevertheless, in 1997 they decided to launch two probes, Voyager I and II, to make sure there was a backup in case one of them failed.
Planets the Voyagers Explored
Saturn's moon Titan, here seen in ultraviolet and infrared, has an atmosphere and deep oceans of ethane and methane.
The main goal for both spacecraft was to explore Jupiter, Saturn, the planets' largest moons, and Saturn's rings. Both craft succeded in sending back a wealth of data from flybys of these planets between 1979-1981. NASA decided to extend Voyager II's mission to study Uranus and Neptune. They could have sent Voyager I on to Pluto but opted instead to use it to examine Saturn's largest moon, Titan, more closely, as it has a thick atmosphere and could potentially harbor life. It was not until 2015 when the New Horizons probe flew past Pluto that we finally got a close-up look at this dwarf planet.
Voyager I's Discoveries
Voyager I discovered intricate details in the rings of Saturn.
These are some of the noteworthy discoveries Voyager I made:
- Jupiter has a thin ring that was previously undetected.
- Jupiter's moon Io has at least 8 active volcanoes.
- Several new moons were discovered around Jupiter and Saturn.
- Saturn has thousands more rings than previously realized. They are kept divided by "shepherding" moons.
- Saturn's rings have transient clouds that look like "spokes."
- Titan's conditions are such that liquid could exist on its surface and it has many of the chemical elements necessary for life.
Leaving the Solar System
Voyager I was the first spacecraft to pass the limit of the sun's solar wind—the bubble of charged particles enveloping the solar system.
While Voyager II went on to leave the Solary System in a direction horizontal to the orbits of the planets, the requirements of Voyager I's exploration of Titan caused it to shoot above the ecliptic plane and leave the solar system. In 2012 it became the first spacecraft to leave the heliosphere, the "bubble" of charged particles from the sun that marks the furthest boundaries of its influence, and went on into interstellar space.
Although its signals are faint, Voyager I still has enough power to transmit data for another year or so before going silent. Momentum will cause it and its twin Voyager 2 to continue traveling the Milky Way, further and further from Earth and from one another as they go their separate ways.
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