Did you know that Voyager 2 left Earth before Voyager 1? ( Voyager 2: August 20, 1977, Voyager 1: September 5, 1977) Recently, on the nightly news, we heard that Voyager 1 has reached then end of the heliopause (the edge of the solar wind's influence), and is continuing on into space. I believe they said it is moving at a rate of one million miles a DAY.
I checked the Voyager website, and it's speed was given in these terms: "Voyager 1 is speeding away from the Sun at a velocity of about 3.50 AU/year...." I don't have enough math to do the equation, but if you do, you can check to see if 1,000,000 miles a day is correct. Isn't that an astounding figure?
Voyager's mission was rechristened the "Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM)" by NASA in 1989 (after Voyager 2's Neptune encounter). Data collection is continuing.
I found the following information at the NASA site on Voyager:
"Each Voyager has mounted to one of the sides of the bus a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk. The disk has recorded on it sounds and images of Earth designed to portray the diversity of life and culture on the planet. Each disk is encased in a protective aluminum jacket along with a cartridge and a needle. Instructions explaining from where the spacecraft originated and how to play the disk are engraved onto the jacket. Electroplated onto a 2 cm area on the cover is also an ultra-pure source of uranium-238 (with a radioactivity of about 0.26 nanocuries and a half-life of 4.51 billion years), allowing the determination of the elapsed time since launch by measuring the amount of daughter elements to remaining U238. The 115 images on the disk were encoded in analog form. The sound selections (including greetings in 55 languages, 35 sounds, natural and man-made, and portions of 27 musical pieces) are designed for playback at 1000 rpm. The Voyagers were not the first spacecraft designed with such messages to the future. Pioneers 10 and 11, LAGEOS, and the Apollo landers also included plaques with a similar intent, though not quite so ambitious."
Perhaps Voyager should be considered mankind's "first step."
Comments (4)
Uh oh... they told them where to find us :-O
I only hope the aliens that encounter our craft are not like those in the movie "Independence Day". I'm not sure Will Smith could save us IRL. ;-)
Posted by Bull... Mad Bull | November 8, 2003 9:43 PM
Posted on November 8, 2003 21:43
If Bill Gates' influence extends to other worlds, I don't think we have much to worry about; 'General protection fault - the program Alien Invasion Fleet must now terminate'
Posted by Pob | November 9, 2003 7:15 AM
Posted on November 9, 2003 07:15
I couldn't believe it when I heard for the first time that it was moving a million miles/day (I thought I had mis-heard). That figure was then repeated later and it just boggled my mind!
Pob - How true!
Posted by bogie | November 9, 2003 8:15 AM
Posted on November 9, 2003 08:15
Our messages on the record disk, which some ingtelligent beings will have to create a 1,000 r.p.m. turntable to hear and "see" will take 296,000 years to reach the area of the brightest spot(Sirius)in the "viewing area" from earth's perspective. Meanwhile the Creator of everything that is, sent a Personal Message to the "blue planet". That Message took human form to tell us about Himself and us ("He who has seen me has "seen" (in Greek the word means more than visibilty -- it means perception) me has seen the Father." His message can be understood by simple children and by great minds (C.S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton Blaise Pascal, etc., etc.). We really should take His Message seriously...even more,we should stop trying to drown it out. Bob D.
Posted by Robert M. Daneker, Sr. | December 11, 2003 9:42 AM
Posted on December 11, 2003 09:42