A little spacecraft that could

 NASA announced that in November of this year (2026), Voyager 1 will reach distance of one light-day from earth. That means, it will take one day (24 hours) for a radio signal going at speed of light to reach the spacecraft which is now16.1 billion miles away. No other spacecraft has gone that far. To put it in perspective, Voyager is now at four times the distance of Sun to Pluto. 

Launched in September 1977, the spacecraft is now close to 50 years old. Besides the scientific instruments and a power source, the spacecraft carries a Golden record. The record contains sounds and date to reconstruct images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth and is intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form who may find them. The record is, in other words, a time capsule. 

 

In 1990 the spacecraft took and sent back a photo of earth which was then 3.7 billion miles away. Barely visible within scattered light rays, the famous “pale blue dot” photograph reminded us of how tiny out home planet is. Taking this photo was Carl Sagan’s idea. He wanted to prove “the folly of human conceit and underscore our responsibility to treat each other kindly and to cherish and preserve the dot”. 

 

It was originally designed for a four-year mission to Jupiter and Saturn, the mission has been extended and it is likely that the spacecraft will keep sending data for a few more years. However, due to declining power, the instruments are being turned off. The power source is decaying plutonium which produces heat and that is converted to electricity. 

 

What is next for this spacecraft? Even while travelling at 38,000 miles per hour, it will take 40,000 years to reach another star. So, close encounters of any kind are remote.

 

Even then, the historic voyage of this little spacecraft demonstrates many things:

 

-- The technologies of the 70s have withstood the test of time. It is hard to imagine that almost everything this complex works almost 50 years after being built. 

 

-- The idealism surrounding the creation of a record that an intelligent extraterrestrial life form can find and interpret is heartwarming. The likelihood of that happening is very small but that did not prevent the designers (especially Carl Sagan) to put their minds behind the project.

 

-- As mentioned, we are still 40,000 years away from getting close to a star that is not our Sun. This is quite discouraging while contemplating human beings exploring our universe. Even in Sci-Fi books an encounter with a distant civilization requires going close to the speed of light, more than 17,000 times the speed of Voyager. That would require a special type of power drive and the voyage would be multi-generational if human beings are onboard.

 

-- In spite the picture from Voyager showing that we live on a fragile pale blue dot, we do not seem to be doing anything differently. We keep fighting wars, talk about destroying civilizations and pay very little attention to truly existential threats like climate change.

 

Despite all that, let us still cheer on the little spacecraft that could (as we cheered the little engine that could when many of us had children)