http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tec...219el.html

Voyager to cross over new space frontier
Tom Chivers
July 1, 2012

NEARLY 18 billion kilometres away, for the first time in the history of the universe, a human-made object is about to leave our solar system.

Voyager 1 set off on the longest journey ever taken, on May 5, 1977. In the 34 years, nine months and 24 days it has been travelling, it has shot by Jupiter and Saturn, photographing the giant planets and their moons; it has passed the Kuiper belt, the vast cloud of asteroids that lies past the orbit of Neptune; it took the first ''family portrait'' of the planets, showing Earth as one more bright point in the black - a pale blue dot among the others.

Now, hurtling silently on at more than 16 kilometres a second, it is reaching the edge of the heliosheath - the final layer of the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles surrounding our sun that marks the limit of the solar system.

Its mission, investigating the gas giants, ended 30 years ago, but as the old machine moved closer to the outside universe it was given new goals, of studying the edge of the solar system and the space beyond. Its instruments have started to shut down, as its nuclear power sources slowly deplete, but its radio transmitter is expected to keep running until at least 2025, reporting back what it finds: it is so far away that those signals now take 16 hours to arrive.

At last, humankind, via its mechanical representatives, is becoming a species of interstellar explorers.

When Voyager launched, it was not known whether a single planet existed outside our solar system: now 786 have been found.

In 40,000 years, Voyager, long dead and silent, will pass near a star in the Camelopardalis constellation. Hopefully humans will have walked on more worlds by then.

Telegraph, London

Waves bye-bye to Voyager

I thought it had already left the solar system years ago?

huh *shrugs shoulders*

Suppose it depends what they mean by the edge of the solar system. If in this context we mean at the edge of the sun's gravitational influence which i'm not sure is possible, strictly speaking. My astro-physics is a little rusty but isn't it the case that if you were to place 2 objects at opposite ends of the universe, there would be gravitational influence between them, however infitisemally remote?

I have followed the Voyagers throughout their journeys.

Pre Voyager I was interested in astronomy but the solar system looked incredibly dull with the knowledge that we had at the time.

I seem to remember there was a lot of complaining about the cost at the time (NASA couldn't afford it - so not much has changed there) and it was recognised that we didn't really have the technology to undertake such a venture.

However there was a fast approaching, once in a lifetime, allignment of the planets that would allow for a grand tour of the solar system so they just had to go for it.

I suspect they sent two up just in case one failed and this rare opportunity was lost.

And then the solar system was steadily transformed as the craft sent back data with each planet flypast.

It was Voyager that inspired the great rush to send more craft to explore the gas giant systems as prior to that it was believed that their moons were no more interesting than our own.

How I envy the youngsters of today because the solar system now looks so exciting compared to what was thought when I was young. Astronomy would definately be my first career choice now.

For the last couple of years Voyager has been sending back signals that it is approaching the edge of the solar system and it might be another couple of years before it breaks out although the latest figures are very exciting indeed.

With its track record I wouldn't be surprised if Voyager still has one last big surprise for us when it enters interstellar space. Lets just hope its not a massive perspex wall.

On that note I do chuckle about what aliens will make of the gold gramaphone record on the Voyagers. After all, today many young humans wouldn't have a clue how to retrive the data from it.

... I have vague childhood memories of the day that it passed Neptune :p

Any idea if she's still transmitting?

Ahh the beauty of Neptune and the mysteries of Triton with its nitrogen rich atmosphere and ice volcanoes. We just have to go back there.

Here are some pics

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/neptune.html

According to this artists impression, there are species of cacti indigneous to the surface of Triton. Who'd've guessed?

The article says that Voyager should run out of juice around 2025.

I wonder what it might find...

Let's hope if it encounters extra-terrestrials they are more like this.



Than this.



On a more serious note, what if it does encounter other life. Then what? Will they study it and find out where it came from, or will we do the same. Who will reach who first?

For all those who say aliens don't exist. It actually makes more sense if they do. The universe is too large for us to be the only lifeforms around.

The other lifeforms are far more likely to see us as a threat if they do decide to study Voyager 1. Even if Voyager comes across them, will it be kept from us to prevent widespread panic?

Each Voyager contains a golden gramaphone record and they made sure that any aliens would be able to find us, if the aliens can work out how to use such crude technology.

They contain

117 pictures explaining Earth. This includes drawings and images that convey information about our solar system, images of people doing various activities and a variety of plants and animals, as well as scenes from around the world.  

-- Greetings in 54 different human languages and greetings from humpback whales.

-- A selection of sounds from Earth. This ranges from natural sounds, like storms and volcanoes, to human-made noises such as trains, airplane and rocket take-offs, animals, tools being used, and a mother kissing a child.

You can see and hear more here.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyage...70816.html


I love the chinese message.
'Hope everyone's well. We are thinking about you all. Please come here to visit when you have time."

So, they'll know how to communicate with us. Good.

I take it they were very selective about the contents though, just in case.

I believe that the actual aliens will not try to destroy us and that they will either look exactly to what we expect or completely different to that.

This post was last modified: 07-02-2012 03:06 PM by Some_Bloke.

Although they say we lack empathy, I do feel sorry for any aliens encountering Voyager.

Not only do they have to figure out how to retrieve the data from the golden record but then they have to translate 54 inane messages in 54 different languages.

They vary from the inscruitably polite Chinese  'Please come here to visit when you have time.'

To the more sinister Rajasthani  "We are happy here and you be happy there".

To the bizarre Swedish "Greetings from a computer programmer in the little university town of Ithaca on the planet Earth".
I think they will need some babel fish to translate that one.

I wonder who's bright idea it was to allow the humpback whales to send a message. How do we know if it was being polite or whether it said something like, 'piss off you puny little squirts.'
Then again with the way we were treating them maybe it sent an SOS.

I do hope this is just a case of me reading too literally, 'This ranges from natural sounds, like storms and volcanoes, to human-made noises such as trains, airplane and rocket take-offs.'
If we do want them to visit lets hope they don't think the Saturn rocket take off sound is a human farting!
I think the best we could then hope for would be a galactic quarantine.

It might be interesting to consider what we would send in a memory stick on an Aspievoyager.

This post was last modified: 07-02-2012 05:59 PM by heterodox.

Unless we are already extinct, the voyager mission will be redundant. I'd say its highly likely that we'll have developed the warp drive before voyager gets anywhere near other stars, meaning we will be able to overtake it well before then. They had better intercept it while they can, because if the aliens take misinterpret it could be a declaration of war to them. They could well be hostile by nature, for all we know. If we're extinct the game is up, anyway.

Does anyone remember the bit from Star Trek 2 where the klingons intercept Voyager and blast it out of space?

If the Whales did send an SOS, how would they respond. Would the human noises frighten them, make them believe we are a threat?

What if, the common cold is deadly to them, if so this could cause the galactic quarantine. It could work either way as they could carry hostile viruses and bacteria.

If so, what could this lead too?