About
Voyager 1 and 2, the last spacecraft of NASA’s Mariner Series, were sent to explore the outer solar system. They made students of Jupiter and Saturn, their satellites, and their magnetospheres, as well as students of the interplanetary medium.
Although launched sixteen days after Voyager 2, Voyager 1's trajectory was a faster path, arriving at Jupiter in March of 1979. Voyager 2 arrived four months later in July 1979. Both spacecraft were then directed on to Saturn with arrival times in November 1980 (Voyager 1) and August 1981 (Voyager 2). Voyager 2 was then diverted to the remaining gas giants, Uranus (January 1986) and Neptune (August 1989).
Data from the fields and particles experiments and the ultraviolet spectrometer were collected continuously as Voyager 1 and 2 crosses the solar system. Data collection continued as the renamed Voyager Interstellar Mission reached the edge of the solar wind’s influence (the heliopause) and exited the solar system in 2004. The two spacecraft are now the farthest human-made objects and are still returning data. Both spacecraft have adequate electrical power and attitude control propellant to continue operating until 2025.
LASP designed Voyager’s Photopolarimeter Experiment to determine the physical properties of particulate matter in the atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, and the Rings of Saturn by measuring the intensity and linear polarization of scattered sunlight at eight wavelenghts in the 2350 - 7500 Å region of the spectrum. The experiment also provided information on the texture and probable composition of the surfaces of the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn and the properties of the sodium cloud around Io.
Mission Facts
Launch Date:20 August 1977
Launch Vehicle: Titan-Centaur rocket
Launch Site:Cape Canaveral, Florida
Mass:721.9 kg
Nominal Power:420.0 WFunding Agency:NASA-Office of Space Science Applications (United States)
LASP Instrument: Voyager’s Photopolarimeter Experiment