Monday 6 August 2007

Voyager 1




Voyager 1 has been up in space now for 30 years. It has been all around this solar system and is now heading off towards our nearest star. It travels at a speed of 1 000 000 miles a day - yes it really is a million but will still take 40 000 years to get to the next star. The concept of distance is truly amazing. It seems quite unlikely that it will reach that destination due to possible shortage of fuel I think. But we will never know anyway.
Voyager is fuelled by radioactiveisotope thermoelectric generators so is completely independant. Each day Voyager reports back with information and photographs.
Now that Voyager is entering interstellar space it will be coming under fire of all sorts of debris and it is likely to be damaged, but it has done well to have lasted 30 years in the Solar System.




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