5 Facts About the Voyager 1 Mission

     The Voyager 1 space probe was launched on September 5th, 1977. It's mission was to fly by two of the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn. While Voyager's original life span was 5 years, it has continued to transmit information to Earth as it enters interstellar space. NASA  estimates that the probe can continue transmissions for another 10 - 20 years. Here are 5 fun facts about Voyager 1.

1. Voyager 1 has a twin. NASA built two space probes that had identical features, and both could perform identical scientific experiments. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were sent to visit the gas giants before traveling on into interstellar space.

• Voyager 2 was actually launched 16 days before Voyager 1. This was because Voyager 1's trajectory had to take advantage of a rare planet configuration (taking place once every 175 years); using the planets' gravitational pull in order to "slingshot" from one to the next with minimal power.
• Voyager 2 was to visit all four gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus); while Voyager 1's mission was to only visit Jupiter and Saturn. 
• Voyager 1 was on a faster trajectory, and overtook Voyager 2 in the asteroid belt; becoming the leader of the two. This is why NASA named it '1'.

2. NASA considered over 10,000 possible trajectories for Voyager 1. Because the "gravity assist" trajectory that NASA planned to use was so complex, there were thousands of potential paths. The calculations had to bring the probe close enough to the planets for an effective "push"; but not so close so that the trajectory was compromised. The fact that Voyager 1 has completed its mission; and is now outside of our solar system shows that NASA engineers chose well.

3. It takes approximately 16 hours and 38 minutes for Voyager 1 to transmit data to Earth. Voyager 1 is constantly streaming information about gravitational fields that surround it and the speed of surrounding solar winds. The fact that the gravitational field shifted from and East-West orientation to and North-South orientation told NASA scientists that Voyager 1 had officially exited the solar system.

4. Voyager 1's final picture sent to Earth is a photo of the solar system. On February 20th, 1990, Voyager 1 was instructed to turn around and take the only existing picture of our solar system. This "family portrait" shows the sun, Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. It was also the last picture taken by  Voyager 1. In order to save power, NASA had the camera turned off.

5. Voyager 1 is the first man made object to reach interstellar space. On August 25, 2012, NASA announced that Voyager 1 had officially left the solar system. It will continue to transmit data until it runs out of power; and it will deliver much needed data about what lies beyond our solar system.