NASA says Voyager 1 is nearing a distance milestone that would make it humanity’s first object one light-day from Earth.
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NASA says its Voyager 1 spacecraft is approaching a new distance record in interstellar space, where it will become the first human-made object to reach one light-day from Earth.
The spacecraft’s milestone is expected to be reached on Wednesday, at which point radio signals from Voyager 1 will take precisely 24 hours to travel from the spacecraft to Earth—one light-day.
NASA described the distance as more than 16 billion miles (26 billion kilometres). Voyager 1 was launched 49 years ago.
Project manager Suzanne Dodd called Voyager 1 “Earth’s ambassador hurtling between stars,” adding that it provides “a sense of wonder” on the home front and calling it “a national treasure” and “Really extraordinary.”
As part of the celebration, NASA is encouraging people to use their phone or a flashlight after sunset Tuesday to create a wave of golden light and use Morse code to spell “V-G-R,” Voyager’s call sign, into the night sky.
Despite sporadic problems typical of old age, both Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 continue to send back science and engineering data as they travel at about 38,000 mph (61,000 kph). NASA says the spacecraft’s instruments regularly report details including the strength and direction of the magnetic field, as well as information about pressure, dust, and galactic cosmic rays.
Voyager 1 entered what NASA defines as interstellar space in 2012, after launching two weeks earlier than Voyager 2. NASA says Voyager 2 entered interstellar space in 2018 and will not reach the one light-day mark until 2035.
Mission operations are supported by a skeleton flight control team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which sends commands about once a week, with additional help sometimes provided by retired project staff.
In September, controllers completed a power-conserving effort for the plutonium-powered spacecraft, and in October they briefly lost contact. NASA says controllers are still trying to determine why communication was disrupted.
Dodd also compared the ongoing effort to “the little engine that could,” noting that Voyager 1 has accumulated Guinness World Records, including for capturing the most distant picture of Earth in 1990.
That image, known as “Pale Blue Dot,” was introduced by Cornell University astronomer Carl Sagan, who said, “On that blue dot, that’s where everyone you know and everyone you ever heard of and every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. It’s a very small stage in a great cosmic arena.”
The Planetary Society’s Bill Nye said in a statement that “all of us — everyone on Earth — have been touched by these missions,” pointing to the Golden Record carried on each Voyager.
NASA says each spacecraft carries a 12-inch (30-centimetre) gold-plated phonographic record containing greetings in 55 languages, along with images and diagrams. The record includes Sagan’s son Nick, then 6, saying, “Hello from the children on Planet Earth,” and it features a stylus and instructions for anyone who might find the record.
Dodd said the Golden Record is “a time capsule of life on Earth from 1977” and added, “I hope something, someone, finds it maybe 1,000 years from now.”
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