NASA space probe launched in 1977
Voyager 2 is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, as a part of the Voyager program. It was launched on a trajectory towards the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and enabled further encounters with the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. It remains the only spacecraft to have visited either of the ice giant planets, and was the third of five spacecraft to achieve Solar escape velocity, which allowed it to leave the Solar System. Launched 16 days before its twin "Voyager 1", the primary mission of the spacecraft was to study the outer planets and its extended mission is to study interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere.
"Voyager 2" successfully fulfilled its primary mission of visiting the Jovian system in 1979, the Saturnian system in 1981, Uranian system in 1986, and the Neptunian system in 1989. The spacecraft is now in its extended mission of studying the interstellar medium. It is at a distance of from Earth as of  2024[ [update]].
The probe entered the interstellar medium on November 5, 2018, at a distance of from the Sun and moving at a velocity of relative to the Sun. "Voyager 2" has left the Sun's heliosphere and is traveling through the interstellar medium, though still inside the Solar System, joining "Voyager 1", which had reached the interstellar medium in 2012. "Voyager 2" has begun to provide the first direct measurements of the density and temperature of the interstellar plasma.
"Voyager 2" remains in contact with Earth through the NASA Deep Space Network. Communications are the responsibility of Australia's DSS 43 communication antenna, located near Canberra.
History.
Background.
In the early space age, it was realized that a periodic alignment of the outer planets would occur in the late 1970s and enable a single probe to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune by taking advantage of the then-new technique of gravity assists. NASA began work on a Grand Tour, which evolved into a massive project involving two groups of two probes each, with one group visiting Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto and the other Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. The spacecraft would be designed with redundant systems to ensure survival throughout the entire tour. By 1972 the mission was scaled back and replaced with two Mariner program-derived spacecraft, the Mariner Jupiter-Saturn probes. To keep apparent lifetime program costs low, the mission would include only flybys of Jupiter and Saturn, but keep the Grand Tour option open. As the program progressed, the name was changed to Voyager.
The primary mission of "Voyager 1" was to explore Jupiter, Saturn, and Saturn's largest moon, Titan. "Voyager 2" was also to explore Jupiter and Saturn, but on a trajectory that would have the option of continuing on to Uranus and Neptune, or being redirected to Titan as a backup for "Voyager 1". Upon successful completion of "Voyager 1"'s objectives, "Voyager 2" would get a mission extension to send the probe on towards Uranus and Neptune.
Titan was selected due to the interest developed after the images taken by "Pioneer 11" in 1979, which had indicated the atmosphere of the moon was substantial and complex. Hence the trajectory was designed for optimum Titan flyby.
Spacecraft design.
Constructed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), "Voyager 2" included 16 hydrazine thrusters, three-axis stabilization, gyroscopes and celestial referencing instruments (Sun sensor/Canopus Star Tracker) to maintain pointing of the high-gain antenna toward Earth. Collectively these instruments are part of the Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem (AACS) along with redundant units of most instruments and 8 backup thrusters. The spacecraft also included 11 scientific instruments to study celestial objects as it traveled through space.
Communications.
Built with the intent for eventual interstellar travel, "Voyager 2" included a large, parabolic, high-gain antenna () to transceive data via the Deep Space Network on Earth. Communications are conducted over the S-band (about 13 cm wavelength) and X-band (about 3.6 cm wavelength) providing data rates as high as 115.2 kilobits per second at the distance of Jupiter, and then ever-decreasing as distance increases, because of the inverse-square law. When the spacecraft is unable to communicate with Earth, the Digital Tape Recorder (DTR) can record about 64 megabytes of data for transmission at another time.
Power.
"Voyager 2" is equipped with three multihundred-watt radioisotope thermoelectric generators (MHW RTGs). Each RTG includes 24 pressed plutonium oxide spheres. At launch, each RTG provided enough heat to generate approximately 157 W of electrical power. Collectively, the RTGs supplied the spacecraft with 470 watts at launch (halving every 87.7 years). They were predicted to allow operations to continue until at least 2020, and continued to provide power to five scientific instruments through the early part of 2023. In April 2023 JPL began using a reservoir of backup power intended for an onboard safety mechanism. As a result, all five instruments had been expected to continue operation through 2026. In October 2024 NASA announced that the plasma science instrument had been turned off, preserving power for the remaining four instruments.
Attitude control and propulsion.
Because of the energy required to achieve a Jupiter trajectory boost with an payload, the spacecraft included a propulsion module made of a solid-rocket motor and eight hydrazine monopropellant rocket engines, four providing pitch and yaw attitude control, and four for roll control. The propulsion module was jettisoned shortly after the successful Jupiter burn.
Sixteen hydrazine Aerojet MR-103 thrusters on the mission module provide attitude control. Four are used to execute trajectory correction maneuvers; the others in two redundant six-thruster branches, to stabilize the spacecraft on its three axes. Only one branch of attitude control thrusters is needed at any time.
Thrusters are supplied by a single diameter spherical titanium tank. It contained of hydrazine at launch, providing enough fuel until 2034.
Mission profile.
Launch and trajectory.
The "Voyager 2" probe was launched on August 20, 1977, by NASA from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a Titan IIIE/Centaur launch vehicle. Two weeks later, the twin "Voyager 1" probe was launched on September 5, 1977. However, "Voyager 1" reached both Jupiter and Saturn sooner, as "Voyager 2" had been launched into a longer, more circular trajectory.
"Voyager 1"'s initial orbit had an aphelion of , just a little short of Saturn's orbit of . Whereas, "Voyager 2"'s initial orbit had an aphelion of , well short of Saturn's orbit.
In April 1978, no commands were transmitted to "Voyager 2" for a period of time, causing the spacecraft to switch from its primary radio receiver to its backup receiver. Sometime afterwards, the primary receiver failed altogether. The backup receiver was functional, but a failed capacitor in the receiver meant that it could only receive transmissions that were sent at a precise frequency, and this frequency would be affected by the Earth's rotation (due to the Doppler effect) and the onboard receiver's temperature, among other things.
Encounter with Jupiter.
"Voyager 2"'s closest approach to Jupiter occurred at 22:29 UT on July 9, 1979. It came within of the planet's cloud tops.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot was revealed as a complex storm moving in a counterclockwise direction. Other smaller storms and eddies were found throughout the banded clouds.
"Voyager 2" returned images of Jupiter, as well as its moons Amalthea, Io, Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa. During a 10-hour "volcano watch", it confirmed "Voyager 1"'s observations of active volcanism on the moon Io, and revealed how the moon's surface had changed in the four months since the previous visit. Together, the Voyagers observed the eruption of nine volcanoes on Io, and there is evidence that other eruptions occurred between the two Voyager fly-bys.
Jupiter's moon Europa displayed a large number of intersecting linear features in the low-resolution photos from "Voyager 1". At first, scientists believed the features might be deep cracks, caused by crustal rifting or tectonic processes. Closer high-resolution photos from "Voyager 2", however, were puzzling: the features lacked topographic relief, and one scientist said they "might have been painted on with a felt marker". Europa is internally active due to tidal heating at a level about one-tenth that of Io. Europa is thought to have a thin crust (less than thick) of water ice, possibly floating on a -deep ocean.
Two new, small satellites, Adrastea and Metis, were found orbiting just outside the ring. A third new satellite, Thebe, was discovered between the orbits of Amalthea and Io.
Encounter with Saturn.
The closest approach to Saturn occurred at 03:24:05 UT on August 26, 1981. When "Voyager 2" passed behind Saturn, viewed from Earth, it utilized its radio link to investigate Saturn's upper atmosphere, gathering data on both temperature and pressure. In the highest regions of the atmosphere, where the pressure was measured at , "Voyager 2" recorded a temperature of . Deeper within the atmosphere, where the pressure was recorded to be , the temperature rose to . The spacecraft also observed that the north pole was approximately cooler at than mid-latitudes, a variance potentially attributable to seasonal shifts ("see also Saturn Oppositions").
After its Saturn fly-by, "Voyager 2"'s scan platform experienced an anomaly causing its azimuth actuator to seize. This malfunction led to some data loss and posed challenges for the spacecraft's continued mission. The anomaly was traced back to a combination of issues, including a design flaw in the actuator shaft bearing and gear lubrication system, corrosion, and debris build-up. While overuse and depleted lubricant were factors, other elements, such as dissimilar metal reactions and a lack of relief ports, compounded the problem. Engineers on the ground were able to issue a series of commands, rectifying the issue to a degree that allowed the scan platform to resume its function. "Voyager 2", which would have been diverted to perform the Titan flyby if "Voyager 1" had been unable to, did not pass near Titan due to the malfunction, and subsequently, proceeded with its mission to explore the Uranian system.
Encounter with Uranus.
The closest approach to Uranus occurred on January 24, 1986, when "Voyager 2" came within of the planet's cloudtops. "Voyager 2" also discovered 11 previously unknown moons: Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda, Puck and Perdita. The mission also studied the planet's unique atmosphere, caused by its axial tilt of 97.8°; and examined the Uranian ring system. The length of a day on Uranus as measured by "Voyager 2" is 17 hours, 14 minutes. Uranus was shown to have a magnetic field that was misaligned with its rotational axis, unlike other planets that had been visited to that point, and a helix-shaped magnetic tail stretching 10 million kilometers (6 million miles) away from the Sun.
When "Voyager 2" visited Uranus, much of its cloud features were hidden by a layer of haze; however, false-color and contrast-enhanced images show bands of concentric clouds around its south pole. This area was also found to radiate large amounts of ultraviolet light, a phenomenon that is called "dayglow". The average atmospheric temperature is about . The illuminated and dark poles, and most of the planet, exhibit nearly the same temperatures at the cloud tops.
The "Voyager 2" Planetary Radio Astronomy (PRA) experiment observed 140 lightning flashes, or Uranian electrostatic discharges with a frequency of 0.9-40 MHz. The UEDs were detected from 600,000 km of Uranus over 24 hours, most of which were not visible. However, microphysical modeling suggests that Uranian lightning occurs in convective storms occurring in deep troposphere water clouds. If this is the case, lightning will not be visible due to the thick cloud layers above the troposphere. Uranian lightning has a power of around 108 W, emits 1×10^7 J – 2×10^7 J of energy, and lasts an average of 120 ms.
Detailed images from "Voyager 2"'s flyby of the Uranian moon Miranda showed huge canyons made from geological faults. One hypothesis suggests that Miranda might consist of a reaggregation of material following an earlier event when Miranda was shattered into pieces by a violent impact.
"Voyager 2" discovered two previously unknown Uranian rings. Measurements showed that the Uranian rings are different from those at Jupiter and Saturn. The Uranian ring system might be relatively young, and it did not form at the same time that Uranus did. The particles that make up the rings might be the remnants of a moon that was broken up by either a high-velocity impact or torn up by tidal effects.
In March 2020, NASA astronomers reported the detection of a large atmospheric magnetic bubble, also known as a plasmoid, released into outer space from the planet Uranus, after