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How much fuel did Voyager 1 have?
NASA estimates that the Voyagers’ fuel efficiency is upwards of 30,000 miles per gallon of hydrazine. Voyager 1 has enough hydrazine to keep going until 2040, while Voyager 2’s juice can keep it hurtling along until 2034.
How does Voyager still have fuel?
Not only do their scientific instruments require energy, but the spacecraft need to keep themselves warm in the frigid environment of space. They rely on radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG) for their energy. Each of the Voyager probes has three RTGs, and they use plutonium 238 for their fuel source.
Will the Voyager 1 run out of fuel?
NASA estimates that the Voyagers’ fuel efficiency is upwards of 30,000 miles per gallon of hydrazine. Voyager 1 has enough hydrazine to keep going until 2040.
How are the Voyager probes powered?
Voyager’s power supply comes from a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), which turns heat from the decay of a radioactive material into electricity to power the spacecraft. Due to the natural decay of the material inside the RTG, Voyager 2’s power budget goes down by about 4 watts per year.
What is the farthest probe from Earth?
Voyager 1
The most distant artificial object is the spacecraft Voyager 1, which – in November 2021 – is nearly 14 1/2 billion miles (23 billion km) from Earth. Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched 16 days apart in 1977. Both spacecraft flew by Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 also flew by Uranus and Neptune.
How much fuel does Voyager 2 have?
Even though most of the launch vehicle’s 700 ton weight is due to rocket fuel, Voyager 2’s great travel distance of 7.1 billion km (4.4 billion mi) from launch to Neptune resultsed in a fuel economy of about 13,000 km per liter (30,000 mi per gallon).
What are some interesting facts about Voyager 1?
Voyager 1 1 Firsts. Voyager 1 was the first spacecraft to cross the heliosphere, the boundary where the influences outside our solar system are stronger than those from our Sun. 2 Key Dates. A 3D model of NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft. 3 In Depth: Voyager 1. 4 Additional Resources 5 Key Source.
How much fuel would it take to travel to Voyager 2?
To add to the previous answer, one can calculate how much fuel the spacecraft would need to do so. Voyager 1 is currently moving at 17 km/s away from us, and Voyager 2 15 km/s. So one would need a velocity change or delta-V of at least that much to return, and twice that much to return in the time that it has been traveling, about 40 years.
What did Voyager 1 discover about the heliosphere?
Voyager 1 was the first spacecraft to cross the heliosphere, the boundary where the influences outside our solar system are stronger than those from our Sun. Voyager 1 is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. Voyager 1 discovered a thin ring around Jupiter and two new Jovian moons: Thebe and Metis.
What was Voyager 1’s closest approach to Saturn?
Voyager 1’s closest approach to Saturn was at 23:46 UT Nov. 12, 1980, at a range of about 78,290 miles (126,000 kilometers). Following the encounter with Saturn, Voyager 1 headed on a trajectory to escape the solar system at a speed of about 3.5 AU (325 million miles or 523 million kilometers) per year,…