Our expert team at freeastroscience.com delves into the remarkable journey of the five spacecrafts that humanity has launched since 1972, venturing to or reaching the edge of the Solar System. These intrepid explorers, namely Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, and New Horizons, initially embarked on their missions to study our neighboring planets. However, defying their projected lifespan, they continue to operate robustly, with four of them having already ventured past the Solar System's boundary. The youngest of the fleet, New Horizons, is expected to cross the heliopause, the outermost boundary of the heliosphere, by 2040. These spacecrafts carry cosmic echoes of our civilization, encompassing biological representations of humans, distinctive voices, and the coordinates of Earth within the Milky Way. Let's dive deep into the specifics of these spacecrafts, their launch, trajectory, and current whereabouts. NASA's Pioneer 10 was the pioneer of outer space exploration, originally launched to study Jupiter. This spacecraft exceeded all expectations by operating for an extended period, far beyond its original 21-month mission plan. Launched on March 02, 1972, Pioneer 10's closest approach to Jupiter occurred on December 04, 1973. During its mission, Pioneer 10 achieved a record-breaking escape velocity of 32,110 miles per hour. It captured about 500 images of Jupiter, providing a clear view of significant landmarks, such as the Great Red Spot. Pioneer 10 held the record as the most distant human-made object until its final signal was received on Earth on January 23, 2003, from a remarkable distance of 7.6 billion miles (12.23 billion kilometers). Following the laws of physics, once a spacecraft is on a trajectory away from the Solar System, it continues on that path unless something alters its course. Pioneer 10 is currently on a journey towards the red star Aldebaran, projected to pass by in approximately two million years.
Pioneer 10: NASA's Trailblazer in Outer Space
Pioneer was the first spacecraft launched to probe the neighbouring planets.
Pioneer 11:
A sister spacecraft to Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11 was the first spacecraft to fly by Saturn. It was launched on April 6, 1973, 13 months after the launch of Pioneer 10. During its fly by of Saturn, Pioneer 11 approached as close as 13,000 miles to Saturn and took 440 images of Saturn and its moons. The spacecraft attained the top speed of 106,000 miles (170,000 kilometers per hour) which was more than 3 times the speed of it predecessor, Pioneer 10. Pioneer 11 crossed the orbit of Neptune on Feb 23, 1990, becoming the fourth spacecraft to achieve the feat after Pioneer 10, Voyager 1, and Voyager 2. Pioneer 11 sent its last signals to Earth on November 24, 1995, 22 years after its launch when it was headed out of the Solar system. Pioneer 11’s trajectory would make it reach the star Lambda Aquilla in nearly four million years.
An artist's concept of Pioneer 11.
NASA's Pioneer 11's path through Saturn's outer rings took it within 13,000 miles (21,000 kilometers) of the planet. Credit: NASA Ames
Voyager 1:
Voyager 1 is the farthest man-made object till date. Launched on September 5, 1977 for a fly-by of Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 became the farthest man-made object on February 17, 1998 when it overtook Pioneer 10. Voyager 1 was actually launched after Voyager 2, but because of its faster route, it crossed the asteroid belt before Voyager 2. Voyager 1 flew past Jupiter on March 5, 1979 and past Saturn on November 12, 1980. On February 14, 1990, Voyager 1’s cameras were pointed backwards and it took about 60 photos of the Sun and planets. All the planets of the Solar System were captured in these picture except Mercury and Mars. Mercury was too close to the Sun to be seen while Mars was on the same side of the Sun as Voyager 1 was, so it’s dark side was facing the spacecraft. These pictures are called the “Solar System Family Portrait”. Voyager 1 officially became the first spacecraft to enter the interstellar space in August, 2012. More than 45 years since its launch, Voyager 1 is still collecting data and sending it back to Earth. Such is the distance between Earth and Voyager 1 now that it takes almost two days for the scientists to send a signal to Voyager 1 and receive the response. Voyager 1 would remain within the confines of the Solar System, the Oort Cloud, for another 20,000 to 30,000 years.
Voyager 1 completed its Jupiter encounter in early April, after taking almost 19,000 pictures and many other scientific measurements
Voyager 2:
Though name as the successor of Voyager 1, Voyager 2 was actually 16 days before the Voyager 1, on August 20, 1977. Hence, it is the longest functional spacecraft. After close encounters with Jupiter and Saturn, where it took thousands of clear pictures of the two gas giants and their moons, Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to fly-by Uranus on January 24, 1986 as Voyager 1 was not headed towards Uranus and Neptune. It approached closest to Uranus on January 24, 1986 at a range of 50,640 miles. During it Uranus fly-by, Voyager 2 discovered 12 new moons. Subsequently, Voyager 2 flew past Neptune on August 25, 1989 about 2,580 miles above the cloud tops of the planet. Voyager 2 crossed the heliopause earlier than Pioneer 10. In December, 2018, Voyager 2 became the second spacecraft after Voyager 1 to enter in the interstellar space.
Voyager 2 was launched on Aug. 20, 1977, about two weeks before the launch of Voyager 1. The two were sent on different trajectories, and Voyager 1 was put on a path to reach its planetary targets, Jupiter and Saturn, ahead of Voyager 2. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
New Horizons:
The youngest of the five groundbreaking missions headed towards the outer space, New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006. Primary mission of this spacecraft was to study the dwarf planet Pluto. After flying close past Jupiter, New Horizons it completed its famous fly-by of Pluto in 2015. During the Pluto fly-by, it took hundreds of pictures of the dwarf planet. The data received from the spacecraft confirmed the diameter of Pluto at about 1,470 miles (2,370 kilometers) which was slightly larger than the previous estimates, while Pluto’s moon Charon was confirmed to be 750 miles (1208 kilometers) in diameter. New Horizons flew about 4,800 miles above the surface of Pluto on July 14, 2015. After Pluto fly-by, the spacecraft sped its way out of the Solar System. As estimated, it would reach heliopause by 2040.
This enhanced colour image of north polar area of Pluto captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft tells another story of Pluto's diversity of geological and compositional features -- NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
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