Grand Explorations: Voyager 2 (remastered) - Orbiter Space Flight Simulator 2010

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-- Original version uploaded on August 3, 2009 --

The Voyager 2 spacecraft is an unmanned interplanetary space probe launched on August 20, 1977. Identical in form to its sister Voyager program craft Voyager 1, Voyager 2 followed a slower trajectory that allowed it to be kept in the ecliptic (the plane of the Solar System) so that it could be sent to Uranus and Neptune by means of gravity assist during the 1981 encounter at Saturn. Because of this trajectory, Voyager 2 could not see the moon Titan up close as its twin had, but the probe did become the first and only spacecraft to travel to Uranus and Neptune, thus completing the Planetary Grand Tour, a rare geometric arrangement of the outer planets that only occurs once every 176 years.

The closest approach to Jupiter occurred on July 9, 1979. It came within 570,000 km (350,000 miles) of the planet's cloud tops. It discovered a few rings around Jupiter, as well as volcanic activity on the moon Io.

The closest approach to Saturn occurred on August 26, 1981. It came within 161,000 km. (100,000 miles) of the planet's cloud tops.

The closest approach to Uranus occurred on January 24, 1986, where it came within 81,500 kilometers (50,600 miles) of the planet's cloud tops. Voyager 2 discovered 10 previously unknown moons; studied the planet's unique atmosphere, caused by its axial tilt of 97.8°; and examined its ring system.

The closest approach to Neptune occurred on August 25, 1989. Since this was the last major planet Voyager 2 could visit, it was decided to make a close flyby of the moon Triton, regardless of the consequences to the trajectory, as with Voyager 1's encounter with Saturn and its moon Titan.

Since its planetary mission is over, Voyager 2 is now described as working on an interstellar mission, which NASA is using to find out what the solar system is like beyond the heliosphere. Like Voyager 1 around three years before, Voyager 2 crossed into the heliosheath, the last section of the heliosphere before interstellar space.

On August 30, 2007, Voyager 2 passed the termination shock into the heliosheath, approximately 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km) closer to the Sun than Voyager 1 did. This is due to the local interstellar magnetic field of deep space. The southern hemisphere of the solar system's heliosphere is being pushed in.

As of August 2012, Voyager 2 was at a distance of around 99.35 AU (14.763 billion km, 9.173 billion miles, or 0.0015604 lightyear) from the Sun, deep in the scattered disc, and traveling outward at roughly 3.28 AUs per year.

Voyager 2 is not headed toward any particular star. It will pass by star Sirius, currently 2.6 parsecs distant and moving diagonally towards the Sun, at a distance of 1.32 parsecs (4.3 ly, 25 trillion mi) in about 296,000 years.

Each Voyager carries a gold-plated audio-visual disc in the event that either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent aliens. The disc carries images of Earth and its lifeforms, a range of scientific information, and a medley, "Sounds of Earth", that includes the sounds of whales, a baby crying, waves breaking on a shore and a variety of music.

Voyager 2 is expected to keep transmitting until at least after 2025, over 48 years since launch.

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