VOYAGER

Continuing to push the confines of space exploration, the Voyager mission is now in year 25 of its quest.

It has greatly expanded our knowledge, along with Voyager 2, of Jupiter and Saturn and Voyager 2 extended that knowledge to include both Uranus and Neptune. It is the only spacecraft to have ever visited these planets. All completed by generous and close flybys.

Both continue their journeys of discovery to explore the region where the Sun's influence ends and the dark interior of interstellar space begins. Voyager 1 is now the farthest human-made object in the universe and the Voyager 2 is quickly approaching.

As of January 2001, Voyager 1 was at a distance of 12 Billion Kilometers (80 AU) from the sun and Voyager 2 at a distance of 9.4 Billion kilometers (62.7 AU). The mission objective of the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM) is to extend the NASA exploration of the solar system beyond the neighborhood of the outer planets to the outer limits of the Sun's sphere of influence, and possibly beyond. This mission is continuing to distinguish the outer solar system environment and search for the heliopause limits, the outer limits of the Sun's magnetic field and outward flow of the solar wind. Penetration of the heliopause limits between the solar wind and the interstellar medium will allow measurements to be made of the interstellar fields, particles and waves unaffected by the solar wind.

PIONEER

Launched on 2 March 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the Asteroid belt, and the first spacecraft to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter.

Pioneer 10 is now 7.5 billion miles away (Until 17 February 1998, was the farthest travelled man-made object, surpassed then only by Voyager 1).

The Pioneer 10's weak signal continues to be tracked, although NASA had abandoned it in 1997, as part of a new advanced concept study of communication technology in support of NASA's future interstellar probe mission. Pioneer 10 will continue into interstellar space, heading generally for the red star Aldebaran, which forms the eye of Taurus (The Bull). Aldebaran is about 68 light years away and it will take Pioneer over 2 million years to reach it.

Launched on 5 April 1973, Pioneer 11 followed its sister ship to Jupiter in 1976, it made the first direct observations of Saturn in 1979 and studied energetic particles in the outer heliosphere. The Pioneer 11 Mission ended on September 30, 1995, when the last transmission from the spacecraft was received. The spacecraft is headed toward the constellation of Aquila (The Eagle), Northwest of the constellation of Sagittarius. Pioneer 11 will pass near one of the stars in the constellation in about 4 million years. Pioneer carried astronomer Carl Sagan's "Hello" message, presumably for the benefit of other life forms somewhere down the road. The golden plaque featured a pair of friendly, naked humans and directives to planet Earth.