Get the birthday candles out for Voyager 1’s 48th birthday as NASA’s second oldest operating spacecraft has turned 48 on September 5th. Launched on September 5th 1977, sixteen days after it’s twin Voyager 2 (which is NASA’s oldest operating spacecraft) both of which where launched in Cape Canaveral, Florida onboard a Titan-Centaur rocket. Although Voyager 2 was launched first, Voyager 1 eventually overtook its twin on December 15th 1977 due to Voyager 1’s faster trajectory.
However, before getting ahead of ourselves, we need to establish why there was a mission like Voyager. It begins with a rare once in every 175 year planetary alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune which gave birth to The Grand Tour program which would initially have four probes that would visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. However, due to its estimated cost, Congressional pressure, and approval of the Space Shuttle program caused that only two probes be created derived from the previous Mariner missions. Eventually, the Mariner Jupiter-Saturn was renamed to the Voyager after NASA held a competition to rename the project.
Better Than a Grammy
Although during the construction of the Voyager missions, a man named John R. Casani, inspired by the previous Pioneer plaques decided to give Voyager something similar and delegated the task to famed astronomer Carl Sagan who was the one responsible for the Pioneer plaques. Alongside his colleagues; Linda Salzman and Frank Drake came up with the idea of having a metal phonograph record with visual information. The contents of the records contained various sounds from nature such as bird and whale song, crashing waves, wind, and animal sounds along with greetings from 55 languages. In addition, greetings from U.N Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, Carl Sagan’s six year old son Nick, and President Jimmy Carter among other human sounds were also included. However, the biggest part of the Golden Record was the music which included famous classical composers like Mozart, Beethoven, Bach. Additionall, Chuck Berry’s hit song “Johnny B. Goode” was also included in the Record which faced controversy given rock ‘n’ roll was seen as troublesome with critics stating it was too “adolescent” to which Carl Sagan humorously responded “There are a lot of adolescents on the planet.” Apart from classical and rock ‘n’ roll music, music all over the world was chosen from different countries like Bulgaria, Senegal, Peru, and many more. The record also included indigenous music from Papua New Guinea, Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo), and the Navajo.
Troubleshooting in 34,000 Miles per Hour
Finally, in 1977 after five years of construction and an emergency wrapping of its external cables using kitchen-grade aluminum foil (yes the foil you use in your kitchen while cooking) due to Jupiter’s magnetic field being much stronger than predicated and could fried Voyager’s systems and end the mission prematurely, the Voyagers were off… albeit with some issues during launch. Voyager 1’s issues occurred from its rocket which began leaking fuel, a rocket stage failing before it used up its fuel, and a faulty sensor plagued One’s launch while its twin Voyager 2 had issues as it experience a double computer failure before launch which was fixed before launch could continue. During the ascent, however, Voyager 2’s encountered more trouble as while the rocket rolled and pitch in its ascent, Two’s systems experienced a robotic version of vertigo and also separated from its final booster stage too quickly which made it’s system believe it primary attitude control system failed and switched to a backup though the Centaur stage remained in control and fixed the error and finally lead the twin spacecraft out of Earth’s gravity.
Leaving the Nest
After completing their primary mission of visiting the outer planets, the Voyagers were bound to a new territory; interstellar space which spurred an extension and creation of the Voyager Interstellar Mission. Though before reaching interstellar space, the probes had to cross the termination shock and heliosheath and before entering interstellar space. Voyager 1 due to its faster speed first reached interstellar space in August in 2012 after its sensors detected an increase in cosmic rays and a decrease of solar particles with Voyager 2 doing the same in November in 2018. As of now, Voyagers 1 and 2 are speeding through space at 38,000 mph and 34,000 respectively, however, just like people in their later years, the Voyagers have aged and faced more problems due to their age and being out in interstellar space doesn’t help much. Yet even so, the Voyagers are absolute record-breakers as not only are the the first man-made objects in space, their CCS or Computer Command System according to the Guinness Book of World Records achieved “the longest period of continual operation by a computer.” Additionally, Voyager 2 was also the first spacecraft to visit Uranus, Neptune, and Neptune’s largest moon Triton among many other world records. Though coming up in a few years around the 2030s or early 2040s, the RTGs onboard the probes will be unable to produce enough power to continue powering Voyager’s systems and making silently drift through space carrying its Golden Record out into the void, hoping someone listens to its golden display of Earth.
Until then, lets celebrate Voyager 1’s 48th birthday and cheers to its nearly 50 year long mission and hopes to many more discoveries and birthdays.
