Voyager probes
Sondas Voyager y el gran tour del sistema solar exterior
- Date
- 1977 · confidence high
- Place
- JPL, Pasadena, California, United States; launched from Cape Canaveral
- Credited to
- NASA JPL (Edward Stone, Gary Flandro, Carl Sagan for the golden record)
- Field
- Movement
What was discovered
Two probes with radioisotope generators that visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune using gravity assists and now travel through interstellar space. They are the most distant human-made objects.
What it led to
- Robotic planetary exploration and the Galileo, Cassini and New Horizons missions
- The routine use of gravity assists
- The golden record as a message to extraterrestrial civilisations
Built on
- Radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG)1961
- RL10: the first liquid-hydrogen rocket engine to fly27 de noviembre de 1963
- Deep Space Network (DSN)1958-1965
- Pioneer plaque: the first physical message to other civilisations1972
- Pioneer 10: first visit to Jupiter and crossing of the asteroid belt3 de diciembre de 1973
- Mariner 10: first visit to Mercury and interplanetary gravity assist29 de marzo de 1974
- Mariner 10 (gravity assist)
- Pioneer probes
Made possible
- Deep Space Network (DSN)1958-1965
- Galileo: first atmospheric probe and first orbiter of Jupiter7 de diciembre de 1995
- Huygens: first landing in the outer solar system (Titan)14 de enero de 2005
- Voyager 1 crosses the heliopause: first object in interstellar space25 de agosto de 2012 (anunciado en 2013)
- New Horizons: first flyby of Pluto14 de julio de 2015
- Cassini-Huygens
- Deep Space Network