If approved, the probe will be launched in 2036 to probe interstellar space.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MARYLAND — Space missions are always long-term. Ralph McNutt of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU-APL) in the United States (USA) and colleagues have just published a detailed proposal for future interstellar probes.
The American Space Agency (NASA) has a vehicle that has survived 40 years of exploring outer space. The Voyager 1 probe is one of the oldest spacecraft and the most distant man-made object from Earth. This spacecraft is still doing science in space since it was launched 40 years ago.
Voyager 1 and 2 made history in the 2010s when they left a hot gas bubble surrounding the Sun, called the heliosphere. The craft has entered the interstellar medium—a region of space dominated by particles, dust, and magnetic fields generated by other stars. However, Voyager is not an interstellar mission.
Voyager 1 has crossed about 23 billion km or 155 times the distance from the Sun. Voyager has been telling humanity new things about the galactic environment in which the Sun resides. Voyager was originally designed to survey the outer planets, such as Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus which they completed in a spectacular fashion.
“The Voyager has instruments on board adapted for planetary exploration. They don’t have special instruments to really understand processes at the edge of the heliosphere,” said Elena Provornikova of JHU-APL.
It should be noted, the Voyager mission is not an interstellar mission. The nearest star system is too far away for operational probes with Voyager technology to reach. But the spaceship will be an eternal explorer in the gap between the stars.
Now, NASA has something new to investigate. The new study, which was initiated at the behest of NASA’s heliophysics division. The working concept is an 850 kg spacecraft, equipped with sensors to measure parameters such as charged and neutral particles, magnetic fields and dust. This is an interstellar probe proposed to investigate interstellar systems.
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