NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is currently
over 14.1 billion miles from Earth
. It's moving at a speed of approximately 38,000 miles per hour and not long ago passed through our solar system's boundary with interstellar space.
Is Voyager 1 still active today?
Voyager 1 and Voyager
2 are still functioning today
, making them the longest-running and most-distant space mission in history. Though they are each taking different paths, both spacecraft are still screaming their way out of the solar system. And they still have a long way to go.
What is Voyager now?
NASA said that the successful call to
Voyager 2
is just one indication that the dish will be fully back online as planned in February 2021. … Both Voyager 2 and Voyager 1 have traveled well beyond their original destinations. The spacecraft were built to last five years and conduct close-up studies of Jupiter and Saturn.
Is Voyager still active 2020?
Voyager 1 is expected to keep its current suite of science instruments on through 2021
. Voyager 2 is expected to keep its current suite of science instruments on through 2020. … Engineers expect each spacecraft to continue operating at least one science instrument until around 2025.
Can we still communicate with Voyager?
(Voyager 1 is able to communicate with other dishes.) While the team won't be able to command Voyager 2,
they will still be listening to the spacecraft
. By combining the power of the other antennas in Canberra, they will be able to collect its scientific observations.
Has Voyager 1 left the Milky Way?
In August 2012, Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to cross into interstellar space. However, if we define our solar system as the Sun and everything that primarily orbits the Sun, Voyager 1 will remain within the confines of the solar system until it emerges from the Oort cloud in another
14,000 to 28,000 years
.
Where is Voyager 2 right now 2020?
On October 29, 2020, NASA re-established contact with its Voyager 2 spacecraft, launched from Earth in 1977. The craft is now
traveling more than 11.6 billion miles (18.8 billion km) from Earth
. It is beyond the heliopause, or boundary region, where the sun's influence ends and the interstellar medium begins.
How far has Voyager 1 traveled 2020?
As of April 2020, Voyager 1 is at a distance of
22.3 billion kilometers (149.0 AU) from the Sun
. Voyager 2 was at a distance of 18.5 billion kilometers (123.6 AU). Voyager 1 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.6 AU per year. Voyager 2 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.3 AU per year.
How far can Voyager 1 go before we lose contact?
Voyager 1's extended mission is expected to continue until around 2025 when its radioisotope thermoelectric generators will no longer supply enough electric power to operate its scientific instruments. At that time, it will be more
than 15.5 billion miles
(25 billion km) away from the Earth.
What is the speed of Voyager 1?
Voyager 1 is traveling faster, at a speed of
about 17 kilometers per second (38,000 mph)
, compared to Voyager 2's velocity of 15 kilometers per second (35,000 mph).
Is NASA still in contact with Voyager 1?
But farther—much farther—Voyager 1, one of the oldest space probes and the most distant human-made object from Earth,
is still doing science
. The probe is well into the fourth decade of its mission, and it hasn't come near a planet since it flew past Saturn in 1980.
What was the purpose of Voyager 1 and 2?
Voyager 1 and 2 were designed
to take advantage of a rare planetary alignment to study the outer solar system up close
. Voyager 2 targeted Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Like its sister spacecraft, Voyager 2 also was designed to find and study the edge of our solar system.
How long does it take to communicate with Voyager?
A round-trip communication with Voyager 2 takes
about 35 hours
— 17 hours and 35 minutes each way. DSS 43 is a 70-meter dish that has been operating since 1973.
How far in space have we gone?
The most distant human-made object is the spacecraft Voyager 1, which – in late February 2018 – is
over 13 billion miles (21 billion km)
from Earth. Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched 16 days apart in 1977.
Has Voyager reached the Oort Cloud?
Space probes
have yet to reach
the area of the Oort cloud. Voyager 1, the fastest and farthest of the interplanetary space probes currently leaving the Solar System, will reach the Oort cloud in about 300 years and would take about 30,000 years to pass through it.
Has anyone ever left the Milky Way galaxy?
On November 5, 2018,
Voyager 2
officially left the solar system as it crossed the heliopause, the boundary that marks the end of the heliosphere and the beginning of interstellar space.
