Voyager’s Grand Tour of the Outer Planets: A 25-Year Celebration
Charles Kohlhase Mission Design Manager (formerly) The Voyager Project
STAIF, Albuquerque, 2/3/2003
(note illustrations courtesy of NASA/JPL)
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-1 The Grand Voyage
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-2 Planetary Alignments
S Repeat Intervals: M EJ 13 months Hohmann transfer EM 25.6 months J EJS 20 years E EJSU TBD years multi-planet transfer orbits not to scale EJSUN 176 years EJSUNP 600 years
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-3 Understanding Gravity Assist
cartoon by Gary Hovland
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-4 Spacecraft and Launch Vehicle
MHW RTG
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-5 A Golden Record From Earth
118 photographs about life on Earth 90 min of the greatest music greetings in 55 languages 100th anniversary of phon. record invention by Edison lifetime over a million years
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-6 Winnowing the 10,000 Possibilities
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-7 The Deep Space Network
Sites - Calif., Spain, Australia Jupiter - 64/34 array, 64, 64
Saturn - 64/34, 64/34, 64/34 Uranus - 64/34/34, 64/34, 64/34/34 64m Parkes
Neptune - 70/34/34, 70/34/34, 70/34/34 (38 total) VLA 64m Parkes (27x25m) Usuda
Australian 64m antenna
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-8 A Gallery of Gas Giants
active atmospheres high-speed jet streams large storm systems all have ring systems all have magnetospheres total of 57 known moons great diversity among moons Io, Europa, Titan, Triton unique spectrum of scientific discoveries
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-9 Jupiter’s Rich Meteorology
belt zone
“barge”
Io and Europa over Jupiter disk
Earth to scale
Great Red Spot, CCW 350-yr storm
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-10 Comparing the Galilean Satellites
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-11 The Volcanoes of Io
Pele plume to 300 km, fallout size of France
Galileo image
50 km
tidal heating hot lava from Tvashtar Catena
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-12 Europa - Ice Over a Vast Ocean
Galileo image
5 km
Voyager image
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-13 Ganymede and Callisto
Voyager
Voy/Galileo 15 km
Galilleo Galileo torn comet, 200 km scar
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-14 Saturn and Titan
dense, nitrogen-methane atmosphere for Titan
chemistry may resemble early Earth
ring “spokes”
complex rings, many diverse moons
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-15 Uranus and Miranda
tilted, featureless, ringed, and 10 new moons discovered
smashed and diameter 472 km reassembled, or upwelling?
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-16 Neptune and Triton
fast winds, Great Dark Spot, faint rings, 6 new moons
geyser-like eruptions
retrograde, likely captured object
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-17 The Heliosphere
Term shock by 2005, heliopause by 2015, Voy life to 2010-2020
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-18 The Eternal Voyage to the Stars
V2 future star encounters: Barnard - 8571 AD - 4.03 LY Alpha C - 20629 AD - 3.47 LY Ross 248 - 40176 AD - 1.65 LY Sirius - 296036 AD - 4.32 LY (Oort’s Cloud to 3 LY)
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-19 Looking Back and Looking Ahead
The greatest exploratory mission of the 20th century (could not have been done without nuclear power)
Anything is possible for the future
2/3/2003 Voyager 25 years CK-20